Sunday, March 29, 2009

Faux Recyling

Journal Entry: Weight =177.8 lbs.; Money Found = $1.80, 30 pennies, 5 nickels, 5 dimes, 3 quarters; Glass Bottles Retrieved = 19. One penny was a wheat. Hardware = 25 ft 3/8 nylon rope.

Feature Entry: After Katrina, New Orleans discontinued its city sponsored recycling program. As a "citizenship" project, the MoneyWalker retrieves glass bottles and throws them in trash cans along the curbs. If New Orleans had an active recycling program, a better behavior would be to recycle.

I chose glass because of issues involving breakage and the danger of broken glass. I also "maintain" the telephone stations and tops of newspaper vending stands. When checking these, all paper, glass and plastic are removed and deposited. I don't have the time to pick up plastic bottles and other debris along the general walk paths.

Picking up glass bottles and carelessly left garbage is worthy citizenship and helps me feel good about myself. I don't feel guilty about finding money, but appreciate the balance of "giving something back."

Breaking stride by picking up glass bottles is a bother, but sometimes the effort provides an extrinsic reward--a found coin. The featured photo above reveals a dime in juxtaposition with a Budweiser bottle. I found the dime under a pile of leaves as I reached the bottle. Several times, money has been found in the reach retrieval process.

Caution, as they say, "experience is the best teacher, but the tuition can be very high." Avoid having to learn the hard way to carefully empty each bottle before the transport to the trash receptacle. You will not believe what might be in an "empty" beer bottle, sometimes something worse than stale beer.

MoneyWalker

2 comments:

  1. Too funny! For a long time I wondered what made the Coke in the plastic bottles turn yellow. Then about a year ago there was a funny clip on The Daily Show that clued me in.

    I'm gradually gathering photos for a post on the "not so pretty" side to walking on public streets.

    We have a good recycling program here for home pickup. Mother Nature did a nice job of clearing out the parking lots this morning in the form of gusty winds. Unfortunately, all that paper is now stuck in fences.

    Nice totals today!

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  2. Be sure to look for paper currency amonst the debris. I have had some of my best paper money finds after a wind/rain storm. Who wants to chase down a buck in all that rain?

    I'm pleased that you get my blog. I can tell you have shared many of my thoughts and experiences during your jog/walk outings. There are other of us out there, but not so many. Look forward to reading about "not so pretty" finds in one of your future blogs. I'm collecting examples of "false positives" for one of my of coming features. As for the Jazz, we are fans. Is Hot Rod still doing the play by play? Utah is the bee state and we have the hornets, New Orleans is the home of the jazz and Utah has that name, maybe we should switch mascots. I was pleased that you noticed my $1.80, that amount is rare, even for an aggressive money finder. I also notice your amounts and sometimes thing, Wow! what a day. This morning's walk was amazing, it seemed that I hit on all my money spots along with several very good curb finds.

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