Redeeming cans and bottles for income often means hours in line and miles on a bike
The wait at the bottle redemption center on North Hayden Meadows Drive can take up to three hours. And that’s after the miles-long bicycle trek some canners make to get there.
Canning, the practice of collecting recyclable containers for redemption profits, sometimes requires long trips to one of just a handful of Portland area BottleDrops. Many grocery stores stopped accepting cans and bottles when the COVID-19 pandemic struck last year, so canners were forced to travel far from the city center with bags or carts filled with recyclable items. A canner can make up to $35 per visit to the BottleDrop by returning 350 containers, the daily maximum.
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