As more people turn to collecting bottles and cans, NY lawmakers push doubling refunds

The workers who collect empty bottles and cans from the city’s streets and trash bins want state lawmakers to double the refunds they get from recycling containers from 5 cents to 10 cents, which would be the first boost in 40 years.

The independent recyclers — known as canners or lateros in Spanish — say the COVID-19 pandemic and the arrival of new migrants increased competition among can collectors as workers struggle with finding steady jobs and grapple with rising rents, food prices and evictions.

A new report released last week found canners earn an average of $5 an hour — a third of the city’s minimum wage — and nearly half are between 50 and 65 years old.

“Every year that goes by, the cost of living goes up and the deposit doesn’t change,” said Ryan Castalia, executive director of the nonprofit Sure We Can, which advocates for canners and commissioned the report.

The report surveyed about 250 canners and found more than 60% were immigrants, 86% were housed and most were renters. Three-quarters of canners said they spent their earnings on food. Estimates from 2019 calculated there were between 4,000 and 8,000 can collectors in the city, but those numbers are now likely higher as workers continue to recover from job losses during the pandemic.

The state bill, sponsored by Democratic Assemblymember Deborah Glick of Manhattan, would increase the recycling refund rate and would expand the list of redeemable containers to include wine bottles, juice boxes and tea beverages.

“When I was growing up in Queens, we had milk delivered in bottles,” she told Gothamist. “You used them and then you put the empties back in the little insulated aluminum box outside, and they picked them up, took them back, sanitized them and reused them. So we knew how to do this stuff — we’ve just had a revolution of laziness.”