Throughout my entire shift today there was a old homeless man who kept coming back a few bags at a time to recycle cans and bottles at our bottle return machines. The machines make it more than clear that you insert cans or bottles into it. He mostly had milk jugs, mayonnaise jars, giant vodka and juice bottles though. He also wanted to know how to “start” the machine… Clearly you just insert the can or bottle to get it to work. When it didn’t take one of his cans I asked him what one it wouldn’t take (We don’t take iced tea cans for example) and he has no idea what it says… Turns out he doesn’t know how to read either.
That was enough to make me thankful to at least have a job right now.