Man saved from BottleDrop chute
New theft deterrent at recycling sites should prevent future mishaps
Daniel Perry, a security guard for Securitas, is one of those everyday heroes. Much respect.
Last time I bumped into him, Perry told me he had been called to extract a man from the bottle drop machine on Northwest 14th Avenue on the west side of Safeway. Anyone who’s ever dropped bags into the chute knows becoming trapped in those metal arms would be a fresh hell indeed. My imagination couldn’t shake the image.
The BottleDrop locations are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day. The evening hours present a problem right there, Perry said.
He said that he’s called over at least once every shift to handle people trying to break in and steal green bags stuffed with cans. The canners change clothes often and deploy other tricks of their trade to avoid detection, he said. There’s even more illicit activity after 8 p.m., he adds. Often, they just leave the door to the drop site slightly ajar and come back later to dismantle the metal arms and extract the bags.
Back to the guy stuck like Winnie the Pooh in the honey tree.
“I had to push this guy through (from outside the building) to the other side,” Perry said. “I didn’t notice if he was hurt because I was laughing too hard.”
Perry states the obvious for the uninitiated: “This has to do with our drug usage problem. No one in their right mind is going to try this.”
Recently, the hinged metal arms of the chute were replaced with a one-way funnel system. The cans go in, but they can’t come out.
“It’s a new system and so far no one’s been stuck in there,” Perry said.
Liz Phillpott, an Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative representative, wrote in an email that “OBRC is consistently working to implement a variety of innovative measures to protect consumer containers from theft, deter bad actors from engaging in unsafe behaviors at bag drop locations, and reduce fraudulent activity in the system.”
I think it's time to get rid of the bottle bill and places like these. There are so many options to recycle we no longer need these. It's fueling the drug crisis. Ever been to the bottle drop near Lowe's at Delta Park? Horrible drug usage on every level. Going to Lowe's is disturbing when you see what happening in the parking lot yet the city still does little to nothing to address it.