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- <text id=89TT1475>
- <title>
- June 05, 1989: American Notes:The Homeless
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- June 05, 1989 People Power:Beijing-Moscow
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 49
- American Notes
- THE HOMELESS
- Battle of The Bottle
- </hdr><body>
- <p> For many homeless people, collecting the deposits on empty
- beverage containers is not a nickel-and-dime affair -- it's a
- living. Some redeem 400 or more cans each day, enough to pay
- for a meal and a night in a flophouse. Last week attorneys for
- the homeless filed a lawsuit in New York, one of nine states
- that require deposits, alleging that some of the state's
- largest supermarket chains have been breaking the law to
- discourage the scavengers.
- </p>
- <p> Lawyers for the Legal Action Center for the Homeless claim
- that though the law requires stores to take up to 240 returns
- a day per customer, some refuse to accept more than ten. The
- suit alleges that grocers have given in to pressure from
- beverage bottlers and distributors not to accept the containers
- so that the distributors can keep unclaimed deposits, which last
- year totaled nearly $80 million. Bottlers say supermarkets don't
- want to hassle with returns.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-