I put out my bottles for recycling instead of returning them myself and have seen the bottle ladies (and other bottle people, I bet there's quite a race to get to the good bins before the other bottle person does).  As far as I'm concerned they do me a service - my bottles do get recycled and someone benefits from it.  No one's going to be a bottle person unless for some reason they have to be - they scour the streets for many hours in all weather for a fairly minimal return.