Context for the bottle thing: Germany has a deposit on bottles that gets refunded in cash when you return a bottle to any supermarket. It's up to €0.25 for plastic bottles which is quite a bit, so some people collect bottles that others have thrown away. (This is also why it's nice to put your bottle next to the bin rather than in it if you're not returning it yourself – saves people the hassle of rummaging around in there.)
I can't personally confirm the "looking at people like they're dead animals" thing, although I do admit that you get a bit jaded when you've been asked for spare change for the third time in a row on the same S-Bahn train.