There is a deposit system in Germany. In practice, this means that there are vending machines throughout the city to which you can return a bottle or can, and in return, you receive a receipt with a code that can be exchanged for cash in the store. This system is used by homeless or unemployed people who collect rubbish and earn a living in this way.

Germany. “Gathering” can be profitable

As reported by Business Insider, bottle collection by homeless people is extremely popular in Germany. So much so that many people deliberately leave their bottles in visible places so that the homeless can exchange them for money. It also causes competition between the “collectors” who compete for the bottles left in the main places of the city. Homeless Christo, BI interviewee explained that if you are lucky and know where and what to look for, you can earn around 50 euros a day from this “gathering”. Monthly in this way you can get 1.5 thousand. euro, or about PLN 7,000. Let us recall that in April 2022, the average gross salary in Poland was PLN 6,627. In this way, you can theoretically earn more in Germany by collecting bottles than in Poland on a full-time job.

Germany. Is it possible to earn on the deposit system?

Obtaining the kind of income Christo talks about, however, is not easy. The BI interlocutor explained that the city center is full of collectors. To find bottles, you often have to go to the suburbs or rummage in the rubbish. This “profession” is also becoming professional. Some of the “collectors” have special equipment, flashlights, gloves, or devices for removing bottles from waste bins .

It should also be added that to get good on the bottles, you have to collect a lot of them. Standard beer bottles can be exchanged for 8 cents, beverage containers for 15, 25, or even 50 cents, but also some bottles are non-exchangeable. Business Insider adds that Poles also come to Germany to earn money to return home with their savings.