Meh. I burn my paper and plastic, throw the food scraps in a compost pile, and dump the glass and metal in public trash cans. I pay county income tax in the county in which I work (but don’t live). I figure I might as well get SOMETHING out of it.
I have not paid for garbage service for over 5 years.
On a side note, as soon as I saw this guy was taking cans to a state where they pay you more, the first thing I thought was, “isn’t that illegal?”
The reason is simple: They are paying you back what you paid when you bought the soda. If you bring the cans from out of state, they are paying you “back” something you never paid. So the law protects them from “big” scammers, which this guy was.
I can see a misdemeanor, even for large amounts. “Felony” is absurd.