Wandering America: My kill threshold is far ahead

This guy barely nodded, then, like Jimmy, lay down on the trash can.

Finding it a bit out of reach, I instinctively stood on tiptoe, trying to grab a plastic bottle located in the corner at the bottom of the box.

As a result, because the distance was too far, he simply used his abdomen to wedge himself against the edge of the trash can, completely forgetting to maintain his balance.

"Ouch... Ouch ouch ouch..." By the time he realized the danger, it was too late.

Thump! He fell right in, nearly making the onlookers burst out laughing.

"Jimmy, I told you to train can recycling experts, not to perform some kind of miraculous transformation."

Ma Jie walked over and looked at him with a half-smile.

"I've been teaching with all my might." Jimmy pulled the person out from inside, took the long clamp, pressed a switch, and extended the handle like a fishing rod. "See? I considered everything when I designed this equipment, but for struggling students, no amount of good stationery will help."

"Alright, alright, stop teasing him." Ma Jie patted the newcomer on the shoulder to encourage him: "Take your time, buddy. The White House wasn't built in a day. To become like him, you might need a bit of talent, but to be competent in this job, all you need is time and hard work."

"Okay, BOSS."

Let them practice freely, and invite Jimmy to go street sweeping together, while we discuss some important topics.

MaJack is most concerned about taxes, as this is a top priority for players on the North American server and cannot be taken lightly.

Upon learning of his concerns, Jimmy immediately provided an explanation: "First, you need to understand a concept. California operates a bottle deposit program, or CRV for short. Consumers need to pay an extra deposit when purchasing bottled water, soft drinks, and alcohol. For bottles smaller than 24 ounces, it's 5 cents, which is the most common. For bottles larger than 24 ounces, like the large bottles of soda we get at shelters, it's 10 cents. There's also a 3-liter box of wine, which is more expensive; you'll have to pay an extra 25 cents."

"The purpose of this is to encourage consumers to return empty bottles and cans, thereby reducing pollution to the city."

"But in real life, no one would make a special trip to a recycling point just for that little bit of money."

"Recycling point?" Ma Jie was a little confused when he heard this new term. Isn't it just called a scrap yard?

"Come with me, you'll see when we get there."

Led by Jimmy, the two arrived at the Holito supermarket located on Fifth Street.

Upon entering the supermarket, there was a line of more than a dozen scavengers on the right.

Upon seeing Jack Ma and Jimmy enter, they were all startled and made way for them.

The previous massive street fight had spread throughout the entire poor neighborhood. Even people who had never seen Ma Jack knew of the existence of the Asian "street fighter," after all, his face was just too recognizable.

Just walk straight to the front of the line, where you can see a self-service recycling machine. Jimmy takes a Dr Pepper soda bottle out of his woven bag, places it flat in the collection window, and positions the barcode facing the scanner above.

Beep! The electronic screen displays "Verification successful," and the scroll wheel below automatically opens, causing the soda bottle to fall to the ground.

At the same time, a ticket was dispensed from the machine's ticket dispenser.

Then take the ticket to the supermarket checkout counter, where the cashier scans it and hands Jimmy a 5-cent coin.

"This is the detailed process for refunding your deposit. Do you see any problems?"

As Jimmy left the Holiland supermarket, he decided to test Jack Ma.

After a moment's thought, the latter said, "It's too slow."

"That's right." Jimmy nodded. "You can only recycle them one by one, and you get a refund for each one you recycle. Although the final profit will be about 8% higher, professional scavengers will never waste their time on this. Besides, each supermarket's recycling machine only recycles the drinks they sell. You still have to sell those cans without the CRV label to privately run recycling stations."

"Why doesn't the government open a recycling center that can inspect and weigh items in bulk?"

"It used to be like that." Jimmy couldn't help but laugh as he said this, "But someone found a loophole and ripped them off. A family of geniuses in Riverside County collected large quantities of cans from Arizona, which didn't have the CRV program, and then transferred them to California to sell. Over eight months, they resold about 178 tons of cans and made a profit of about $760 million."

"A fortune?" Upon hearing this number, Ma Jieke couldn't hold back. You might laugh at someone who collects scrap, but this person has directly achieved financial freedom.

"760 million," Jimmy said, sounding surprised. "But that family has already been arrested on charges of grand theft and recycling fraud because no one paid a deposit for the cans they received. Using cans that weren't paid for to collect deposits is essentially stealing money from California consumers."

"Pfft..." Ma Jie laughed out loud, not in a very kind way. "That balances things out, that balances things out, now I'm at peace."

"There are many similar incidents, such as scrap dealers colluding with managers of official recycling centers to have the same truck weighed twice and sold for twice the price."

"Another example is stuffing a pile of bottles with cheap broken glass to increase their weight."

"If you have powerful connections, you can even modify the weight of a truck and make money selling air."

"But that's not the best."

"You mean there are other experts?"

"Hmm." As they walked on, Jimmy launched into a long explanation: "Have you ever thought about it? When scavengers sell their cans to recycling centers, who do the recycling centers sell them to?"

"A processing plant, of course," Ma Jieke replied without hesitation. "The processing plant then presses the cans into cubes, heats and melts the plastic bottles into liquid, sells them to upstream recycling companies, and then they become bottles and jars again, appearing on supermarket shelves, waiting for consumers to buy them, waiting for us to recycle them."

"That's right, that's the general cycle." At this point, Jimmy consciously lowered his voice: "Then here's the problem. The California government's recycling center charges us 5 cents per can, but if we want to sell to processing plants in bulk, we definitely have to pay less than that price, otherwise why would they cooperate with us? So at most, it's 4 cents. That extra cent is part of the environmental protection budget."

"Have you sniffed out any loopholes?"

Ma Jie shook his head. "If you buy back the product for 4 cents, what other room for maneuver do you have besides selling it to upstream suppliers for profit?"

"Phew, let me reveal the answer to you." The kid smiled mysteriously and continued, "To make things easier for ordinary citizens, the California government stipulates that waste weighing less than 99 pounds does not need to be recorded, because this is not a commercial activity, but just an individual's environmental protection activity. So processing plants can deliberately not process the waste, but break it down into small packages and then send people to secretly sell it to recycling centers."

"Doesn't that mean we'd make a net profit of 20%?"

"The recycling center receives the cans and sells them to processing plants."

"The processing plant buys them at a low price and then sells them to the recycling center at a high price. This cycle can theoretically be repeated countless times."

Damn! After hearing the last part, Ma Jie finally understood why the California government was always short of funds. This was a real cash cow.