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City Studies

Bottled Up

People all over New York City are pushing shopping carts full of bottles, but why? Where are they going with all those cans?

In the Fall of 2015, CUP collaborated with teaching artist Leon Anthony James and Sean Haberman’s Global History Regents Prep class at the Academy of Urban Planning in Bushwick, Brooklyn to find out more about the New York State Returnable Container Act, a.k.a. the Bottle Bill. This law was created to reduce litter and to encourage recycling, but how does it impace our communities?

To investigate, students created screenplays about the people known as “canners” who redeem 5 cents per bottle collected, then interviewed the co-founder and former canner of the Bushwick recycling center Sure We Can. They created this printed postcard to share what they discovered about the life of a bottle in their neighborhood.