Trash pickers

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Do you have trash pickers where you live?
Tomorrow is garbage collection day here, and I just spied one, in broad daylight, picking through a neighbors's trash left for collection.
How they can generate as much trash as they do is a mystery to me, but that's a topic for another thread.
These guys come through in old pickups and vans, looking mainly for metal items which have some value.
I use the recycling bin myself, and never put aluminum cans in it.
I sell those myself, cheap (child of uncertain parentage) that I am.
These guys never seem to cause any mess or other problems, and it seems to me that they serve a useful function in that they recover materials that might otherwise end up in landfills.
While they are probably not especially affluent, they at least show initiative in working for the few dollars they probably get for their haul.
I know that when I put my old mower that was really beyond saving out last summer, it was gone before I even got back to the house.
Do you have guys like this in your area, and if you do, do you see them as doing good or harm?
 
Yup. A little while ago I put out a dresser on trash day. It was a nice quality dresser at one time, but the paint was beat. Later that night I was coming home and from a distance, in the darkness, I spotted a reflective vest. I thought "What are they working on the roads at this hour for?" As I got closer, it was two guys, a van and a trailer. They were loading the dresser into the trailer. Good for them. Maybe they'll do a little refinish job and make a few dollars, plus like you pointed out, it keeps it out of the landfill. I liked the reflective vest, nice touch "Safety First", these guys are pros.

So, yeah, we got 'em in our area. I'm cool with it. I like people showing some initiative.
 
I couldn't care less if someone wants something I've thrown out, they are more than welcome to it. In fact we have put stuff on the curb on the weekend knowing it will be gone long before garbage day. I don't like when they make a mess digging through stuff and leave it. We have actually had someone rip open a large bag and go through it, they at least took the small kitchen bags out of the can and put the stuff from the big bag in the can.

Can't say it's always that way. Have seen a big enough mess across the road that we started putting the garbage out in the morning for a bit.
 
Some bicycle rider that visits the trash when its recycle day.

Then, if something bigger to set out separate, it usually will sit. But put a $50 price tag on it and will be gone before fast.
 
Yes we have people that drive around on trash day and look for stuff. There are also people around who post on Kijij or CL for free metal pickup or electronics pickup and some people that have a trailer/bin in their driveways to drop off scrap metal. It's good for the environment, why should it be shipped to the landfill.

Regards, JC.
 
We have 3 days a year where you can get rid of many items that you can't normally put in trash or recycling. Or just more than will fit in your garbage cart.

The trash company will recycle what they can.

Once I threw out a car seat, having checked that something over x years old should no longer be used. Otherwise I would have given it to a charity for them to sell.

Someone took it. So no idea now if the person sold it and made money on something that shouldn't be used or if there is a child on a somewhat unsafe car seat or both. I'm pretty annoyed about it. That garbage was put out for recycling not for someone to be opportunistic. And we pay for the pickup so this is really stealing.

Plus they open up boxes in the hope that what is inside is what is written on the outside. They made a mess last time and loose bits of rubbish were blowing down the street. They come at night so they obviously don't feel what they are doing is legal.

So this time, everything is going out in the morning.
 
Our new house is on a pretty secluded private drive, so there isn't much traffic from the recyclers.

The old house had multiple pickers driving through in the evening. I couldn't care less. If somebody could find value in the junk I was putting out at the curb or was willing to go through the trouble of recycling it, more power to them. I always made sure to leave the big items, like brake rotors and drums, out separate and they would never touch the rest or make a mess out of the trash.

Being from Detroit's east side, I've always known the garbage pickers as "the sheeny man". Looking it up on urban dictionary, "sheeny" is slang for a Jew. Probably not the most PC description, but it always just meant the junk man or a garbage picker.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2009/05/19/116725-sheeny-wagon-explained/
 
When I lived in Buffalo, tons of dumpy pickup trucks and vans would roam the streets looking for anything metal.

Times are tough there, so glad I moved south.
 
Sure do. At least they try and do some good and make a dollar or two instead of being on the dole as their lifeline. If they make a dollar or twenty and keep stuff out of landfill, I am all for it. Good for them and keep up the good work.
 
We get them riding bicycles with trailers or pushing shopping carts. I will try to leave our garbage and recycling out early the evening prior to collection to give them a chance to peruse through everything while it's still light outside. If I get the chance, I'll even sometimes set out beer and wine bottle empties for them. I have zero problem with them at all.
 
The town over from us is the richest in the area and one of the most wealthy in the state. When they put out play houses and other kids toys, I'm not afraid to go get them.

Other stuff? Nah.
 
Couple of years ago I bought a new gas grill, and put the old one at the end of the drive, and it wasn't 10 minutes and it was gone.
 
We don't get many around here, but if you put something you think is junk in the "free" section on Craigslist, someone will gladly come get it.
 
i dont see any of that here. do they take your trash right to the dump? here they take it to a building full of mexicans. they dump the load on a conveyer and the mexicans pull out all the stuff like cans and metal. then they put it into an end dump and haul the actual trash to the dump.
 
Trash pickers are usually very ANNOYING. They often drive around late in the evening in an old beater truck or minivan that needs exhaust work. I wish the cops would cite them for having a loud exhaust.
 
They are everywhere in my area, as long as they don't make a mess and none of them seem to I don't care.

We have one that seems very professional and drives a base late model Silverado. He just wants cans and beer bottles. I gave him a 24 pack the other day.

If someone is willing to put in the effort I think its great, they serve a purpose of keeping still useful material out of a landfill.
 
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I honestly have no idea. I never scrap, I give my metal away to get favors at the dump or from my subs.

I just let my siders strip an entire house I demolished of its aluminum siding, gutters, storm doors, and most of its copper plumbing. I bet they got a grand, but I'm not sure.

My plumber takes all the lose copper scrap, and whatever he yanks out when we do a remodel.

The guys seem to love it, the good will you get from a pile of aluminum gutters is worth more to me than a few bucks.
 
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I haven't seen anyone picking in my trash can but im sure they exist, every time I put any metal or old AC part by the curb is gone in 5 mins.
 
Somebody near here put a toilet out in their front yard about a year ago, and it's still sitting there. The owner apparently wanted to assume somebody would grab it. I'm sure it was a fine thought at the time, but I'm wondering if he'll ever give up and dispose of it. Recently I noticed plants starting to grow out of it, so maybe he actually wants to keep the thing.
I have no problem with trash picking. I would do it myself for some items. If some individual leaves a mess or has loud exhaust, those are separate issues which should be clamped down on, but trash picking in itself is harmless. Around here though, the problem is bears.

The loud exhaust that we get every night is from the newspaper delivery driver. Seriously, he has a job which requires him to stop and accelerate from every mailbox in a residential area in the dark early hours of the morning. And he thinks it's okay to leave a rotten nonfunctional muffler on his pickup. If there is anybody in the world who ought to have enough respect to put a muffler on their vehicle, it's him. That says all that can be said about his personality, I can't call him a suitable name within the confines of the word censor.
 
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