Recycling and Bottle Deposits for Charity

 

In Israel recycling is suggestion, not required. I save bottles, glass and plastic, for the deposit money, but it's not for me. There's a neighbor who keeps bins for people to drop their bottles off, which I do weekly. Then another neighbor collects them in large strong bags, each holding fifty 50. 

This week, I found myself going with that neighbor to a couple of large supermarkets, one in Ariel and the other in Rosh Ha'ayin to get the money. I want to make it clear that she uses the money from the bottle deposits to donate to a charity for IDF soldiers. 

The supermarkets limit the amount of bottles a person could bring to fifty 50-- and they're counted--, so my attendance was necessary. We were able to bring one hundred 100 bottles to each supermarket.

Many, actually most, supermarkets don't have enough space to accept bottles. This is big business, or at least bulky. And obviously they have to send the bottles to somewhere... after accepting them.

I'm glad to have helped. To be perfectly honest, I had an ulterior motive traveling with her. She works near where I had to be...

An Awful Thing Happened Before Work

Yesterday just as I was about to sign into work at Yafiz I checked my mail and discovered awful news. The daughter of friends passed away, and the funeral was in just a couple of hours. I quickly told my boss who said "go, now," which I did.

Since I had just done a large shopping, I left it in the store and sent a note to the Shiloh email that I needed someone to bring it home. When my husband got home, he sent another email, and somebody we (or at least he didn't recognize) don't even know picked it up and brought to us.

There was another complication getting to the funeral, which was in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem. The bus is only every thirty minutes, and apparently I had just missed one. I decided to walk in the direction from the Central Bus Station in the hope that I'd find a cab for most of the way. But I was mistaken. There were few, and they were full.

Suddenly I saw one with a passenger pull up by the gas station towards the entrance to the city and get gas. When it finished and passed me it stopped and asked where I was headed.

"The Cemetery," I answered.
"Hop in," the driver replied.
"Are you going to the funeral from the bus accident?" asked the passenger.
"No, a young mother died of cancer."

We were each deep in our thoughts...

When we reached the cemetery, I asked how much to pay.

"Nothing," said the passenger.
"I'll give charity," I responded.
"Thank you," he said.

And we each went to our separate funerals...

One Person's Cultter is Another's Treasure

When my sister moved our parents from their first "old age home," where they had a nice big one bedroom apartment to a more caring facility where they had a large "L" shaped room, there were lots of things they no longer needed.  Some things we divided and others were brought to one of the enormous Good Will stores/centers in the Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale area.  Books none of us wanted were donated to the public library, which has receptacles in various convenient places.

I described Good Will to friends in Israel as a "goyish g'mach."  That's what it is.  I wouldn't be surprised if the people who first established Good Will had gotten the idea from what the Jewish community did in the various "g'machim."  A  g'mach is a very necessary sort of charity, that can give/sell/rent services and things to others in need.  The services or things can be anything from money to cars to diapers, pacifiers, clothing, furniture, wedding gowns, decorated pillow cases for a Brit Milah, books, talents and more.  There is no end to the possibilities.

Many people (including myself) I know donate perfectly good, but personally useless, clothing to a g'mach.  It's much easier to clean out unnecessary clutter when you know the items will be used and treasured by other people.  As hard as we try, we still end up with unneeded stuff in our homes and closets.

When I was flying into New York for my mother's funeral, I noticed that the zipper on my good backpack, the one I'd been using the past couple of years to take my books etc when studying in Matan, wouldn't stay closed.  That backpack had been from my son's closet.  He gave it to me when I sent out an alert to the kids asking if they had one they weren't going to use again.  I think it was one of the freebies he had been given when in the army.  There were ads on it; tzanchanim, paratroopers got quite a few of these sorts of sponsored freebies.  It was pretty obvious that the bag hadn't been in use for awhile by all the dust.  I enjoyed it; it was well-made and orthopedic.  But what's the point of a backpack that doesn't stay closed?

A rushed visit to anyplace for a funeral doesn't include time for shopping, so I asked a friend I'd be seeing at the funeral who had offered to help in whatever I needed, to buy me a new one.  She said that she'd first go through her closets.  And she discovered this bag.

It had been her son's.  He's now married and neither needs nor wants it.  It's in too good condition to give away and the g'machim  in her area wouldn't be interested in it.  For me it's perfect, B"H, thank G-d.  And she's overjoyed that it's finally out of her closet.  She knew it was worth saving.