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As they should. About a decade ago in Toronto, Ontario, Canada we actually made collecting cans out of recycling bins illegal. The city claimed that these "sca

As they should. About a decade ago in Toronto, Ontario, Canada we actually made collecting cans out of recycling bins illegal. The city claimed that these "scavengers" were taking their rightful profits. I shit you not. [0] [0] https://toronto.citynews.ca/2008/08/07/city-to-crack-down-on-blue-box-scavengers/ https://toronto.citynews.ca/2008/08/07/city-to-crack-down-on...

hellbannedguy 5y ago
bruceb 5y ago
Well if city doesn't get that revenue then the will raise the price of garbage collection. Doesn't seem that surprising. From the article: But city officials argue the small-time scavengers aren’t its chief concern. “We’re not going after the single person going down the street going through the Blue Box,” Orpin insists. “We’re going after the professional recyclers, the guy who is running a truck or multiple trucks.”
Ensorceled 5y ago
The dirty secret of recycling is that a significant percentage of what the city of Toronto collects is not really recyclable; those black take out containers, pizza boxes, plastic bags, contaminated paper products, loose lids .... The only truly recyclable products are aluminum cans, clean paper and clear glass. Aluminum cans and clean cardboard are the only thing that really pays to recycle. If for profit companies, or even thousands of individuals, are going around scooping all the aluminum and clean cardboard first, the system quickly collapses as it becomes a huge expense and blue bins become simply another garbage bin. These scavengers were also exacerbating contamination in process -- our blue bins would regularly get dumped out on the street or sidewalk and the blue recycling bags ripped open so the "sorter" could find the cans faster. To be clear, there are no "profits" in recycling ... it's a loss with some cost recovery.
- poo-yie 5y ago
  What's the significance of the glass being clear? I'm guessing this means that green or brown glass is not recyclable. Why is that?
  - moron4hire 5y ago
    It's strictly because you can't get the color back out of the glass. They want to make new, clear bottles, instead of just accepting that we could all live with just brown bottles.
    - poo-yie 5y ago
      That was my guess. However, couldn't they make new brown bottles out of old brown bottles? Maybe not big enough incentive to sort by specific colors.
      - Ensorceled 5y ago
        Yep. Most bottles are clear and that's what the system is set up to recycle. We still recycle green and brown glass ... it's just less efficient and productive. I'm pretty sure it's a cost to the system as well.
    - Ensorceled 5y ago
      Well, brown bottles also make it difficult to see if, for instance, those pickles have "passed". Both at the store level and for the consumer.
      - moron4hire 5y ago
        Huh? Pickles don't go bad. That's kinda the whole point of pickling.
        Ensorceled 5y ago
        I didn't say bad, "passed" ... mushy and yellowish. They can go also bad if they weren't canned properly, which is rare but happens. Which is why people like clear glass.
chongli 5y ago
They are stealing. They’re trespassing on people’s property to take resources that don’t belong to them and selling them at a profit, depriving the city’s recycling program of revenue. And the people I see doing this are probably not homeless people since they are picking up all the metal in a fancy pickup truck. Not only are they collecting cans but also old metal furniture and appliances. This is a business they run at the city’s expense, doing redundant with the city already paid for.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  There is a ton of case law in pretty much every common law jurisdiction establishing that stuff that is visibly trash-like and abandoned in a public area is fair game. If the job is redundant because volunteers are doing it than maybe the city should stop paying for it.
  - chongli 5y ago
    These areas are private property: the ends of people’s driveways. The city pays for trash and recycling collection from these areas. The scavengers steal all of the profitable items (mostly metal) from people’s recycling, making the recycling program even more unprofitable than it already is.
    - johnnyApplePRNG 5y ago
      Exactly right but why is the issue here that the city is losing out on money? The issue should be that people in our society are so desperate for income that they're literally digging through our trash for our scraps, no?
      - chongli 5y ago
        They're driving fancy pickup trucks so I wouldn't call them desperate. They are scavengers by choice. They could just as easily pick up a trade and do honest work for a living. There is absolutely no shortage of work for skilled trades workers. My roommate is a drywall taper and he makes a lot of money. He tells me about how unreliable the other people in his trade are. There is a TON of opportunity for people who work hard and act responsibly.

hellbannedguy 5y ago

bruceb 5y ago

Well if city doesn't get that revenue then the will raise the price of garbage collection. Doesn't seem that surprising. From the article: But city officials argue the small-time scavengers aren’t its chief concern. “We’re not going after the single person going down the street going through the Blue Box,” Orpin insists. “We’re going after the professional recyclers, the guy who is running a truck or multiple trucks.”

Ensorceled 5y ago

The dirty secret of recycling is that a significant percentage of what the city of Toronto collects is not really recyclable; those black take out containers, pizza boxes, plastic bags, contaminated paper products, loose lids .... The only truly recyclable products are aluminum cans, clean paper and clear glass. Aluminum cans and clean cardboard are the only thing that really pays to recycle. If for profit companies, or even thousands of individuals, are going around scooping all the aluminum and clean cardboard first, the system quickly collapses as it becomes a huge expense and blue bins become simply another garbage bin. These scavengers were also exacerbating contamination in process -- our blue bins would regularly get dumped out on the street or sidewalk and the blue recycling bags ripped open so the "sorter" could find the cans faster. To be clear, there are no "profits" in recycling ... it's a loss with some cost recovery.

poo-yie 5y ago
What's the significance of the glass being clear? I'm guessing this means that green or brown glass is not recyclable. Why is that?
- moron4hire 5y ago
  It's strictly because you can't get the color back out of the glass. They want to make new, clear bottles, instead of just accepting that we could all live with just brown bottles.
  - poo-yie 5y ago
    That was my guess. However, couldn't they make new brown bottles out of old brown bottles? Maybe not big enough incentive to sort by specific colors.
    - Ensorceled 5y ago
      Yep. Most bottles are clear and that's what the system is set up to recycle. We still recycle green and brown glass ... it's just less efficient and productive. I'm pretty sure it's a cost to the system as well.
  - Ensorceled 5y ago
    Well, brown bottles also make it difficult to see if, for instance, those pickles have "passed". Both at the store level and for the consumer.
    - moron4hire 5y ago
      Huh? Pickles don't go bad. That's kinda the whole point of pickling.
      - Ensorceled 5y ago
        I didn't say bad, "passed" ... mushy and yellowish. They can go also bad if they weren't canned properly, which is rare but happens. Which is why people like clear glass.

chongli 5y ago

They are stealing. They’re trespassing on people’s property to take resources that don’t belong to them and selling them at a profit, depriving the city’s recycling program of revenue. And the people I see doing this are probably not homeless people since they are picking up all the metal in a fancy pickup truck. Not only are they collecting cans but also old metal furniture and appliances. This is a business they run at the city’s expense, doing redundant with the city already paid for.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
There is a ton of case law in pretty much every common law jurisdiction establishing that stuff that is visibly trash-like and abandoned in a public area is fair game. If the job is redundant because volunteers are doing it than maybe the city should stop paying for it.
- chongli 5y ago
  These areas are private property: the ends of people’s driveways. The city pays for trash and recycling collection from these areas. The scavengers steal all of the profitable items (mostly metal) from people’s recycling, making the recycling program even more unprofitable than it already is.
  - johnnyApplePRNG 5y ago
    Exactly right but why is the issue here that the city is losing out on money? The issue should be that people in our society are so desperate for income that they're literally digging through our trash for our scraps, no?
    - chongli 5y ago
      They're driving fancy pickup trucks so I wouldn't call them desperate. They are scavengers by choice. They could just as easily pick up a trade and do honest work for a living. There is absolutely no shortage of work for skilled trades workers. My roommate is a drywall taper and he makes a lot of money. He tells me about how unreliable the other people in his trade are. There is a TON of opportunity for people who work hard and act responsibly.