People’s Depot aims to change the narrative on canners

Scott Atkins started collecting and recycling cans and bottles about 15 years ago to supplement his income. In a 10-hour work day, he says, a canner can make a couple hundred dollars. However, doing so is no easy task.

It usually involves early mornings and late nights, plus a comprehensive understanding of the city’s recycling pick-up days and routes — all while carrying pounds of recyclables on shoulders, bikes or carts. A 12- to 20-pound bag of cans can be worth anywhere from $20 to $30, he says. For $5 worth of glass, canners carry up to 50 pounds.

After a long day collecting, canners take their hauls to grocery stores or BottleDrop sites run by the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, or OBRC, to receive their 10-cent refunds. In an average year, the state program recycles about two billion cans, glass and plastic bottles.

It’s a process that can present various challenges. Atkins says the machines at OBRC sites can be picky, malfunctioning or randomly closed. And at grocery stores, there often aren’t enough employees to help canners redeem their recyclables when a problem does arise.

There are times they ignore canners completely.

“Sometimes they just want you to leave so you’ll wait for an hour or more,” Atkins said. “That’s common. It’s much harder to turn them in than to get them.”

Experiences like this are what led Ground Score Association to open The People’s Depot in 2020, an alternative beverage container redemption center located under the Morrison Bridge. Ground Score bills itself as “an association of informal recyclers, canners, dumpster divers and other waste pickers who create and fill low-barrier waste materials management jobs in Portland.” Operated by a staff of current and former canners two hours per day, Monday through Friday, The People’s Depot is known among canners for being an efficient and judgment-free space.

Atkins helps process beverage containers The People’s Depot takes in — up to 38,000 per day between the hours of 10 a.m. and noon.

“People love it,” Atkins said. “Because you show up? We count accurately. They don’t have to deal with all that other stuff. It’s hard enough trying to make ends meet, going out canning. It’s humbling in itself. And when you go try and return them, sometimes that’ll take you all day, just going place to place and being turned away.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, grocery stores stopped taking redeemable containers after the Oregon Liquor Control Commission lifted retailers’ obligation to take them, leaving canners with few options. The city initially gave Ground Score a grant to open an emergency depot. Then, OBRC came knocking.

“We’ve just been exponentially growing for the past five years, and it’s just been amazing,” said Kris Brown, a former canner who has worked with The People’s Depot since it opened and is now the organization’s operational manager.

Brenda Mackey-Pointer is a canner who, like Atkins, works at The People’s Depot processing containers. She’s been homeless on and off her whole life and started collecting cans when she saw other people who lived on the streets collecting them. Later, she found The People’s Depot, and kept returning every day.

“It’s a job I like to do,” Mackey-Pointer said. “I’ve been in and out of drug programs all my life, and never had hardly a good-paying job. This is the longest I’ve ever held a job. A lot of people can’t get a job. They just need part-time jobs like this to help them, give them a little bit more confidence and let them have a little bit of money in their pocket, which gives them the self-esteem to keep going.”

In March, Ground Score received support from OBRC and DHM Research, plus volunteers from the city to survey 152 canners who frequent The People’s Depot. According to Taylor Cass Talbott, co-founder and co-executive director of Ground Score, the survey aims to dispel common misconceptions and stereotypes about canners, which Cass Talbott says is similar to the rhetoric around homelessness.

“It’s a very unstudied population, and this narrative about all canners being drug addicts is just, frankly, wrong,” Cass Talbott said. “When we’re collecting data, there’s nothing to support that. We know that the discourse is really manipulative and inaccurate. We’re really trying to correct some of the inaccurate stereotypes about canners, as well as trying to highlight their stories.”

Brown says The People’s Depot is a lifeline for many of the canners who face challenges finding jobs. Informal workers like canners don’t need to rely on having an address, government-issued identification or other documents necessary to find traditional employment. People who have mental or physical disabilities and use Supplemental Security Income also rely on canning to make ends meet.

According to Ground Score’s research, nearly 7 in 10 canners surveyed have a physical or mental disability, despite only 14% receiving Supplemental Security Income or other disability benefits, and more than half of the canners surveyed lack housing.

Canners said in the survey they were most likely to spend the money they earn on food and non-alcoholic drinks, bills, transportation, shelter, medication and toiletries, and clothes and laundry.

“We have a huge intake of people coming in towards the end of the month because that’s when all their money has run out,” Brown said. “So now they’re forced to go out and collect bottles and cans to be able to get their groceries for the last quarter of the month. There are too many people who think these people don’t deserve to make money because they’re using it on drugs. It’s a very misconstrued thing. Who are these people to judge how anyone spends their money?”

The stigma against canners has made it difficult for The People’s Depot to expand into a more permanent space despite its continuous growth, according to Brown. However, in February, OBRC and other stakeholders introduced Senate Bill 992 in the Oregon Legislature to authorize the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to approve one or more alternative access redemption centers, The People’s Depot being one of them.

Once The People’s Depot is considered a full-service redemption center, it can operate like other retailers. This means it can be open for longer hours and move into a more permanent location, according to Cass Talbott.

Mackey-Pointer says weather is a challenge at the current location, especially during the winter months.

“We’re at our limit here,” Brown said. “We have finally outgrown it. If anything, being under here for the last four years has shown how resilient and adaptable canners are because we’ve operated under here with no power, no running water, in the rain, the snow and the hot summer.”

Since Atkins started canning 15 years ago, he says he’s seen canning culture change. More people are doing it, but there are also more opposed to it. He says more bins are locked to deter canners from collecting cans and bottles. But he believes most people would not judge canners if they tried it for a week.

Before he started canning, Atkins judged others who went through his trash or recycling bin. It wasn’t until he tried it himself that his perspective completely changed. He describes the experience as humbling.

“I would suggest that people out there, come out here and do it for a week, see what it’s like, experience it,” Atkins said. “I think that it will change the opinion that every single person has about people out there who look different. The people that do this are the toughest people. It’s much more difficult than it looks.”

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This article appears in May 7, 2025.