Baffled by the Bottles

            I have discovered at fast food restaurants that you put all your garbage on a tray rack and place glass bottles in a crate: instead of dumping it all in a garbage can.  I noticed that every restaurant has this system of garbage racks and bottle crates.  As someone who has an environmental element to both my major and minor I expected the Germans to be very responsible when it comes to disposing their waste.  In fact, many of the small shops have stacks of crates full of empty bottles that customers had returned.  I also witnessed something during my first few days in Germany that contradicted my view of Germans being more responsible with their waste.  Many individuals whom had just finished their bottle of beer or pop had just left them randomly on the street.  This behavior totally baffled me and seemed to be the opposite of my view of Germans being more self-aware when disposing of their trash.  However, I also noticed that I haven’t seen an abundance of bottles around the city.  There are individuals with three or four bags hanging from their bicycles; all filled with bottles.  On Sunday alone, at Mauer Park, I saw three gentlemen scampering around the park picking up as many bottles as they could. I realized that these people were picking the bottles up to turn them in for money.  So it all started to make sense why people randomly placed glass bottles down across the city because, they know the bottles will be picked up.  I paid close attention when Brody and I rode our bikes back through the park in route to the hotel and I don’t remember seeing one bottle lying around in the park.    If only there was some sort of monetary incentive to pick up dog dung and cigarette buds, then Berlin’s streets would be among the cleanest in the world.