Not many people can say that they made a profit during carnival, but 22-year-old Puck and 19-year-old Juliëtte do. With an hour of picking cups and hand in in Breda, the girls earned 160 euros in deposit. For that they had to make their hands pretty dirty, but the party noses had that over. “Earn less with my side job.”
The girls from Rotterdam arrived on Saturday a day of carnival in Kielegat. “But at ten in the evening we found out that the coins were gone and we were about to go,” says Puck. “Until we saw a girl walking with a stack of cups that she could hand in for deposit.”
That gave Puck and her girlfriend an idea. “We decided not to go home yet, but to pick up cups. You got fifty cents for every cup, so in an hour we had earned 160 euros euros,” she laughs.
Most people from Brabant can take an example from the top locks, because it was a big gang in Breda. “The streets were full of cups. Many people did not know that you got money back or they threw the cup out of laziness, because there were only two delivery points in the city.”
Puck and Juliëtte were not the worst and even gained a win with their 320 collected cups. “We have recovered our costume, the train journey and the food. In addition, we both have twenty euros in profit. We are going on vacation together, so that works out well,” laughs Puck.
“Some cups were full of pee or puke.”
The girls had to make their hands dirty for that little profit. “It was really gross work. Some cups were at the toilets and were full of lake or puke. We then threw it against the wall to take the cup with us. We picked up almost all the cups except the cups that were broken. Because we did not get a deposit for that.”
The money was the main reason that the girls were picking up. They thought that the streets became a lot cleaner.
“It is a shame that you no longer get money for broken cups, because there were so many. There were also many scarves, hats and broken sunglasses that have fallen their heads during carnaves,” says Puck.
“We handed in key forests or debit cards that we encountered in the pub. To collect the cups we received a lot of help from people on the street and a security guard pointing out cups. That was very nice,” she laughs.
“Wipes and disinfectant.”
According to her, the response of the people to the delivery point was also worth it. “They were laughing very hard, every time we returned. They even gave us wipes and disinfectant to clean our hands. Fortunately they were not allowed to complain about what they got for work.”
The girls considered going longer after the profitable hour. “But at five past eleven we were back on the train. Juliette had to work the next day, but doubted to call her work. She earns less with her part -time job,” says Puck.
That is why they will go back next year to pick up the cups of the streets in Kielegat. “But then we take gloves and we prepare better,” she laughs. “We have had quite a bit of muscle pain. Our skirts were not very long, so we had to get to the knees.”