Teemu: In out-door events, there is always someone gathering bottles, which given that these are Finns having a picnic means he probably makes pretty good money. One day ... I had some bottles ... so I just left the bag on the street, maybe two euros worth, and it was gone in five minutes. The law has been in effect for as long as I can remember, I don't even think of it as an environmental measure, it is simply part of life.
NYC works exactly the same way. People also make a living gathering up cans, glass bottles, and plastic. At first I thought it was Dickensian to see guys hefting jumbo sacks of plastic, but later learned that collectors can support a family in a Brooklyn apartment by their work, until they are able to take better jobs. Indeed, it is simply part of life.
Of course I've bivouacked in areas of the US where voluntary recycling centers are only accessible by car, there is no recycling, and/or the water works are forced by EPA to issue regular warnings about the carcinogen levels in the tap water. Some necks of those woods -- tarnation! -- even lack sidewalks, making a hike for food a mordacious game of dodge-car.
That what irks about Eco-hobgoblin media movements: they start by blaming everyone, ignoring that not everyone has access to the same infrastructure. It's almost a Voltarian parody: "The Green Movement, in all its populist majesty, allows both those with clean and toxic water to drink from the tap."
Marie Antoinette with solar panels. The bed of Procrustes sewn from natural fiber. An Immodest Solution demanded swiftly.
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