Foraging for bar glass in the wild . . . is this ethical?

[darkrose50]

Foraging for bar glass in the wild . . . is this ethical?

I work downtown Chicago, and on my walk from the parking lot to the office I sometimes find bar glass strewn about (like a pint glass or a whisky glass). Much to my wife’s dismay I wash it and keep a collection.

If the bar glass is on the sidewalk (often by a city tree, a potted plant, by the curb or in a wind shelter of some sort like a corner), perhaps blocks away from the bar . . . do you think that it is fair game?

Do bar workers roam the streets to collect bar glass?

[Florian]

Eh?..... Be a bit more precise...

[darkrose50]

Eh?..... Be a bit more precise...

I just found a pint glass in a city plant. It is almost certainly from a nearby bar.

[Florian]

I just found a pint glass in a city plant. It is almost certainly from a nearby bar.

Ok, then. In the drinks business, we do calculate with an average loss, so the theft/breaking of a serving glass is already calculated into the overall serving price, as is cleaning. Say when we talk about high quality ware from, say, Sahm, the break-even point is calculated to 50 refills and cleanings (before adjusting the service fee or beer price

[danzibr]

Not only fair game, you’re doing your community a service by cleaning up.

[halfeye]

I think it's questionable.

The money involved would be tiny, so it's probably not a big deal, most of the time, but if someone was out to make trouble for you, it could give them a way to get at you.

If you went to a bar and took the glass your drink came in home, that would be stealing.

If you found a glass just outside a bar, that a customer patron of the bar could have placed without themselves leaving the bar, that I think would verge on stealing.

If you found a glass that was near a bar, and there were no other bars around, that's probably technically receiving stolen property. As has been said, if it was outside the bar's cleaning up range, it's probably more of a public service than a crime, but it seems to me (I am not a lawyer, and I live in Britain, if you don't my knowledge/guesswork is wrong for you, and probably long out of date even if you do), that technically it is both.

[tomandtish]

Check your local city laws regarding lost property, as they will define what can be done with it and if there's an exception for property below a certain dollar amount.

[Fyraltari]

I'm confused: people steal glasses in bars and throw them on the sidewalk? Why?

[Florian]

I'm confused: people steal glasses in bars and throw them on the sidewalk? Why?

Quite common behaviors, happens all the time.

[Mith]

I'm confused: people steal glasses in bars and throw them on the sidewalk? Why?

Drunk people are weird.

[Fyraltari]

Drunk people are weird.

Ah yes, now this makes sense.

[Algeh]

I'm confused: people steal glasses in bars and throw them on the sidewalk? Why?

I assume they (the glasses (also the people)) have alcohol in them at the time.

Presumably, people are doing this because they are roaming around drinking in groups, and the group wants to leave the bar before everyone is finished with their drinks, so they decide to take the drinks with them on their way to their next bar. This is not the kind of thing that would be acceptable to do where I live, but I also don't tend to do my drinking in lively "bar districts" as opposed to "commercial areas with a mixture of bars that locals go to and non-bar businesses", so that may be a factor.

[Vinyadan]

Do bar workers roam the streets to collect bar glass?

I don't know what to choose between "happy is the bar owner with enough money to spend to send his workers on the streets to collect old glasses" or "woe is the barmaid whose owner would send her on the streets to collect old glasses".

Anyway, it isn't something I have ever seen.

[snowblizz]

Do bar workers roam the streets to collect bar glass?

I believe with near 100% cetainty that no, they do not. They'll pick them up from the outside serving area or maybe something within reach, but that's the limit. Someone somewhere certainly has their staff doing it, I'm also 100% that staff never seems to find any (because there's no way they'll be looking).

I'm also 95% sure you are doing a public service by picking them up. The only argument I see is whether you should and where you get the rubber gloves to handle random street glasses...

Furthermore I'm 80% certain all those glasses are going to be broken within a week living on the rough streets and thus turn into deadly shrapnel.

[darkrose50]

I wash the glasses in hot water with Dawn from the break room, then I put them in the dishwasher at home.

According to Google Maps there are seven (7) bars within 2-blocks of my work.

I used to find more bar glass when I parked ~8-blocks away from work, but now I park ~3-blocks away. I used to park in a parking garage, but my car was broken into twice (in the same month, likely by the same person). I now park in a lot, and the downside is that sometimes I get blocked in (so far two times in about 1.5-years).

[Imbalance]

1) you need to get out of the city more if "the wild" to you is a downtown park.
2) you are performing a good deed by gathering them.
3) an even better deed would be to try and return them. They don't belong to you.
4) if you try and return them and the bars laugh it off, keep them. But at least ask. Who knows, maybe they'll pour you one on the house for your good deed. Hopefully in a clean glass.

[sktarq]

You are morally fine and dandy.

with 7+ bars nearby the "ownership" would be pretty ambiguous unless they have etching that denotes the establishment.

and really what is going to happen to them otherwise....probably landfills or if lucky a recycling plant.

[snowblizz]

1) you need to get out of the city more if "the wild" to you is a downtown park.

In all fairness, I've been to Chicago and once you leave downtown and the residential suburbs it's cornfields for 3 hours driving straight in any direction except Lake Michigan. Basically. To get actaul "wild" probably need to go couple states off.

The American midwest, one big cornfield since 1897.

[Razade]

The American midwest, one big cornfield since 1897.

Well. There was that one sixish year gap. Somewhere between 1930 and 1936.

[snowblizz]

Well. There was that one sixish year gap. Somewhere between 1930 and 1936.

You mean they tried soybeans for awhile?

[Ashtagon]

You mean they tried soybeans for awhile?

I heard they tried moisture farming.

[DavidSh]

You all talking about the Dust Bowl? I guess that shrunk, but did not entirely displace, the midwestern corn patch.

[shawnhcorey]

I'm confused: people steal glasses in bars and throw them on the sidewalk? Why?

They go out to have a smoke with their glass. Then they forget it behind.

[Razade]

You all talking about the Dust Bowl? I guess that shrunk, but did not entirely displace, the midwestern corn patch.

Yes, it was a joke.

[Liquor Box]

It's fine unless you are taking the glasses from immediately outside the bar, where their barstaff would usually collect them anyway.

As others have said, you are probably doing a good thing by collecting them. No need to return them to the bar.

[shawnhcorey]

It's fine unless you are taking the glasses from immediately outside the bar, where their barstaff would usually collect them anyway.

As others have said, you are probably doing a good thing by collecting them. No need to return them to the bar.

If they're not immediately outside, how would you know which bar to return them to?

[Liquor Box]

If they're not immediately outside, how would you know which bar to return them to?

Well it might be a wee way away from a bar and there may be no other bars nearby. So it may be a reasonably presumption to make that it comes from the bar in question, but it is probably beyond the quick look outside that the bar workers would do at closing time.

[CheesePirate]

Foraging for bar glass in the wild . . . is this ethical?

I'd say it is, yes. I've been doing it for years, picking up any abandoned glasses I see in the morning/daytime.

Obviously the large collection of perfectly fine drinking glasses in my cupboard is a nice bonus, but my main reason for picking them up is to avoid broken glass all over the pavement.

If a glass had the name of a specific pub on it I'd definitely return it to them, but so far I haven't found any that do. They either come with brewery logos or nothing at all - finding out which particular pub a glass came from is pretty much impossible.

[Tvtyrant]

You are literally doing the community a favor, so I would say it is quite ethical. The people who took them not so much.