Hey, those are my cans

Well, its been over a month since my last post and I've gotten several complaints about that. Sorry about that. Work (where I do most of my writing) hasn't allowed must time for blogging. In any case, I'm going to digress from the Twins postings in order to discuss something that just pisses me off.

There are these two guys that live in one of the buildings in our apartment community and they happen to have a garage right across from ours. Pretty much every day when I come home from work or pretty much anytime I come or go from my garage, at least one of them is out in their garage doing their thing. What is their thing, you ask? You see, their garage is filled with bags of cans, scraps of metal, and old appliances. They are constantly sorting through the cans, organizing the metal scraps and stripping the old appliances of their various metal components. All of the work that these two fine gentlemen do in their garage is so they can sell this metal at the local recycling center.

On the surface, this all sounds legit so far, right? It's certainly their right to make a little money off of recycling their used cans and old appliances. Except, I have a hard time believing that two people could produce hundreds of empty cans each week. I also notice that different appliances appear in their garage each week. I have an even harder time believing that they own all of these appliances and that they just happen to keep breaking all the time such that they can scrap them for parts. So then, where are they getting all of these items which they can sell for money?

Answer: The dumpster/recycling bins

These nice men are dumpster-divers. I have seen them many times (usually early in the morning and after dark) literally climb into the big dumpster outside our apartment building and pick through the garbage looking for anything that would have metal that could be sold. They take entire bags of people's recycling out of the bins and place them in their garage. In short, they steal other people's garbage and sell it for their livelihood.

Now, we've all heard stories of meth-heads stealing copper wire and catalytic converters from people's cars and selling them for meth money, but I don't believe these guys are meth users. I think they're just too lazy to get real jobs. I mean for Christ sake, they could be trash/recycling pickup men, or work at the dump and it would be the same work. I'm guessing it probably doesn't pay as well though.

I probably shouldn't be as upset about this as I am. I mean, I am getting rid of the cans, etc, so why do I care what happens to them once I throw them out? And legally speaking, dumpster-diving is perfectly legal in most places. Essentially, when you put something in the trash, you give up your possession of the item and its free for anyone to claim. But you know what, when I put my garbage and recycling out there, I'm not putting there for someone to make a profit.

I would be even more upset if I were a home-owner. In some cities, home-owners have to pay a company to come collect their garbage and/or recycling. If I were paying for those services and then someone came along and stole my garbage and/or recycling to make money, I would be livid!

I guess one of the reasons that I'm so annoyed by these guys is that I think maybe they get some of their metal from places other than the dumpster and recycling bins at our apartment. They often have pieces of metal pipe that look like fence posts or something similar. So, are they going to construction sites or homes and taking pieces of metal? Not to mention the large number of appliances they have. Are they driving around and taking appliances off of people's curbs? At least once a week, they park their car, which is full of metal scraps, etc in front of their garage and unload it. The fact that they loaded their car up indicates to me that they didn't get most of that stuff near by.

When I was researching the legality of dumpster-diving and stealing of recyclables, I found this story. People are making a business out of stealing recyclables and garbage. Its completely ridiculous.

I'm so sick of lazy people who can't just make a normal living. I'm sick of those who have to prey on others and take advantage of everyone just for their own gain. Maybe what these guys are doing isn't that big of a deal, but it still falls under these types of behavior and I can be upset with them if I want to be.

I guess I'll just have to start taking my metal scraps to the recycling center myself...