Many pensioners and
unemployed people in Berlin are turning to an unusual means of supplementing
their meager incomes: collecting discarded deposit bottles. They can return
them to stores or supermarkets for a few cents per bottle. But as the activity
becomes more popular, competition among collectors has intensified.
To see Günther rummaging through trash cans in Berlin,
you might assume he was homeless. But the 61-year-old is actually one of a
growing number of pensioners looking to earn extra cash through bottle
recycling.
Significant numbers of financially destitute people are now resorting to collecting discarded glass and plastic bottles, which carry a redeemable cash deposit, as a means of supplementing their income. But whereas the majority of those collecting used to be the homeless, alcoholics and drug addicts, more recently it is Berlin's pensioners and long-term unemployed who are increasingly turning to the practice in order to make ends meet.
The number of pensioners resorting to bottle
collecting has doubled in the last couple of years. Social experts are warning
that the unhygienic practice is a symptom of an inadequate social system
struggling to cope with the growing population of elderly residents in the
German capital.
Social Contact
"People just throw the bottles away anyway, so
why not make a bit of money out of it?" says Günther, who did not want to
be identified by his last name. The former mechanic was forced into early retirement
due to illness and has been collecting bottles in his local district of
Tempelhof for the last few years. He says his pension of €700 ($920) per month
is simply not enough to provide a decent standard of living. He can earn up to
€5 per day through bottle collecting, money which he spends on food and drink.
"I collect bottles all year round, depending on
my mood," explains Günther, who says the activity helps him to gain social
contact. "I get to meet all sorts of people, which can be fun. I had a job
in a museum for a while, but I nearly died of loneliness in that place."
His supplementary source of income is only possible
because of German laws aimed at encouraging recycling and reducing waste. In
2003, the German government introduced a mandatory deposit on one-way packaging
for drink products such as beer, mineral water and fizzy drinks --
non-carbonated drinks, wine, milk and spirits are exempt -- with the aim of
encouraging recycling. (Multi-use bottles were already subject to a deposit.)
The deposit paid on each bottle, which ranges from 8 euro cents for a multi-use
glass beer bottle to 25 cents for a larger one-way plastic bottle, can be
redeemed in cash at stores and supermarkets.
The rise in bottle-collecting is a symptom of the
social problems which have affected Berlin since the fall of the Wall in 1989.
The city may have a large creative class, but the German capital remains
heavily in debt and unemployment is stuck at over 13 percent.
Coupled with the increase in part-time contracts and
lower wages, pensioners in Berlin are being forced to survive on smaller and
smaller pensions. In 2009, some 57,500 out of a total population of 648,000
pensioners living in Berlin needed welfare support from the state to top up
their pensions, costing the federal and state government a total of €318
million in subsidies -- an increase of 42.5 percent over 2006.
As people struggle to make ends meet on unemployment
benefits and depleted pensions, more elderly people in Berlin are relying on
charitable organizations for social assistance in the form of clothing and
food. They include the Bahnhofsmission, a Christian charity that maintains
drop-in centers in Berlin's main train stations, and the Berliner Tafel (Berlin
Table), a non-profit organization that distributes food donations to charities
in the city.
Sense of Purpose
Sabine Werth from the Berliner Tafel is all too aware
of the rise in the numbers of people turning to bottle collecting as a means of
financial support. At one time, she says, it might have been considered
shameful to go fishing around in trash cans looking for empties. But now
increasing numbers of people are accepting it as a viable means to make money,
especially those who find themselves in long-term unemployment or are surviving
on meager pensions.
"For the older generation it provides a sense of
purpose," she told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "They see it as a reason to get
out of the house and come into contact with people." Bottle-collecting
also benefits the environment, she explains. "But it is really about
breaking out of the cycle of poverty and loneliness -- two things which almost
always go hand in hand."
At first glance, Günther's bottle-collecting sounds
like a productive pastime that gives him social contact and an opportunity to
bolster his income. But it is hard to ignore the social and economic realities
that are driving increasing numbers of people onto the streets in search of
empties.
Until recently, Günther had been collecting empties
from Tempelhofer Feld, a disused airfield turned public park which is popular
with picnickers in summer. But then guards warned him off. "It was quite
lucrative there until the security guys started getting heavy and told me to
disappear," explains Günther. "I know it's because they don't want
all the tourists seeing the real poverty in Berlin." He now has to collect
the majority of his bottles from underground stations during the night.
Those who in the past managed to make money collecting
the bottles that other people throw away are now facing increasingly tough
competition. Berlin residents describe a boom in bottle-collecting, and there
are stories about unscrupulous collectors who hover over people drinking in
public, waiting to seize their empties.
Online Service
Amid such stories of desperation, one young Berliner
decided to do something to make life easier for Berlin's bottle collectors.
Communication design student Jonas Kakoschke is the founder of an online scheme
that aims to unite unwanted deposit bottles with collectors. It started out as
a joke between Kakoschke and his friends about what to do with the large number
of empty beer bottles left in their apartment after a raucous house party. That
turned into the website Pfandgeben.de, which launched in July 2011. Members of the
public are able to log on and find contact details for a local collector in
their area. The collector then takes the bottles to the nearest collection
point and gets to keep the pre-paid cash deposit on each bottle returned.
The feedback has so far been very positive, and the
site has attracted considerable media attention. Founder Kakoschke has been
surprised by the types of people registering as collectors. "My one
concern was about drunks turning up on people's doorsteps to collect
bottles," he says. "But that isn't the case at all. In actual fact,
most of the collectors I have spoken to are pensioners or unemployed people
looking to earn a bit of extra cash to get by."
The scheme has grown rapidly since its launch and has
been expanded to include other German cities such as Cologne, Augsburg and
Essen. But whilst many see it as a logical way for people to be able to help
Berlin's bottle collectors, who provide a useful service in return, Sabine
Werth from Berliner Tafel is more cautious in her assessment. "The online
scheme is interesting, but it will inevitably be targeted by collectors who
have the capacity to take large quantities of bottles," she says. "It
won't help the majority of collectors who are really destitute, since they tend
to make their living gathering small numbers of discarded bottles from trash
cans and on the street."
'Something to Do'
Despite the circumstances, collectors such as
64-year-old Uwe (not his real name) continue to put a brave face on the
situation. Unemployed and suffering from acute diabetes, he has been fishing
for discarded bottles in the bins and courtyards of Berlin's Kreuzberg district
for the past two years.
"I really need the money because unemployment
benefits are not enough to live on," says Uwe, loaded down with carrier
bags full of empty bottles hanging from each arm. "I guess it gives me
something to do, cleaning the streets up a bit. And I manage to lose a bit of
weight from all the walking."
No comments:
Post a Comment