Harvesting the Streets of Austin
Harvesting the Streets of Austin by Mike Hirsch
I have long embraced environmentalism’s three Rs, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. While I, like most of you, look to incorporate strategies to do each in my daily life, I have one sort of unorthodox strategy that does all three that I want to share. I call it street harvesting.
For the last five plus years I’ve started each day by walking my dogs through the Hancock and Hyde Park neighborhoods. In addition to carrying bags to pick up my dogs’ poo, I also carry a bag for recyclables. I pick up most of the metals I come across, most of the plastic bottles and some of the glass.
I also pick up other oddments that find their way onto our streets. There are tools, cigarette lighters, house wares (e.g., glasses and cups), lumber, clothes, balls, etc. The streets of Austin are bountiful with lost and discarded materials. I have found and returned numerous wallets and cell phones to grateful owners. I’ve also picked up a startlingly large number of batteries of all sizes that inexplicably end up in the gutter.
Once home I sort the harvested material into metal specific containers: one for aluminum cans, one for brass, another for copper. There’s one for lead, buckets for steel, stainless steel, non-can aluminum and one for miscellaneous metal. I also have a pail for discarded batteries. In the last three years I’ve taken over 60 lbs of them to Austin’s household hazardous waste drop off site.
Twice a year I take metal to the scrap yard. These walks have yielded more than 6,200 lbs of metal in five and a half years and over $2,500 for the recycled scrap. I have picked up thousands of nails, screws and bolts (hopefully reducing the number of flat tires and perhaps even accidents), nearly 400 lbs of lead (primarily weights used to balance tires) and over 1,600 lbs of aluminum cans. Steel, the most omnipresent metal, has topped 3,300 lbs. Most of the money generated from the sale of the metals has been invested into Austin’s Black Star Beer Co-op Pub and Brewery.
I’ve used some of the lumber in remodeling projects, kept some of the tools to fill in gaps in my tool boxes, and given many items away to family and friends (in fact I’ve saturated my immediate network with working cigarette lighters from the street). But most of the reusable goods have found their way into the rummage sales I’ve hosted for NARAL ProChoice Texas, The Lilith Fund and BookWoman. My street harvest goods have generated hundreds of dollars for these groups in the last several years. And yes, I find money almost every day…
Though I’m sometimes mistaken for a homeless man by folks who don’t know me in my neighborhood, several folks I’ve passed have thanked me for cleaning the streets. To me it’s a simple environmental activity that Reduces, Reuses and Recycles.
I read that Ghandi once said he spun thread every day to model a positive and industrious behavior that all Indians could emulate. My street harvest activity is a simple way to contribute to global sustainability. I hope others will pick it up.
Mike Hirsch is a Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Huston-Tillotson University. He can be reached at mlhirsch@htu.edu.
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Sorting and disposing of your harvested metals...
I noted in my first posting the abundance of recyclables to be found on the streets of Austin. I'd like to take a little time to discuss options for their disposal.
Most of us have easy access to the blue barrels provided by the city for recycling. Plastic and glass bottles and tin cans can be readily disposed of here. Aluminum cans can be disposed of here as well unless you want to recycle them for money.
If you want to recycle aluminum cans for money, I suggest you dedicate a storage barrel just for them. I have used dog food bags and various used plastic garbage bags to take the cans to the recycler. Unfortunately this part of the recycling process at times requires the use of store purchased bags. I try to keep their use to a minimum.
Most recyclers pay a higher price for crushed cans as they take less work to handle. Many of the cans that I harvest have been crushed on the streets. Those that aren't I step on to crush before I put them into my recycling bag. The cans offer little resistance to crushing. It is important to note that various cat food cans and sardine cans are aluminum as are the tops of many nut cans, etc. All these can be included in your aluminum can recycling.
While it is easy to identify and segregate aluminum cans for cash recycling, the other metals you find on the streets may be a little more challenging to group. A magnet and metal file will be invaluable to you in the sorting process.
As I mentioned in my first posting, most of the lead I recycle is in the form of the weights attached to the rims of your car tires. These are used to balance the wheels and steady the moving car. These weights loosen during normal driving. Look at your own car's tires or those of your neighbors to familiarize yourself with the look of the weights if they are unfamiliar to you.
Lead darkens and is dull when exposed to the elements but can take on a silver sheen when driven over and scrapped on pavement. The lead often breaks away from the steel clasp they're attached to and flattens as a result of subsequent drive over’s. Lead was also used in plumbing. It is a soft, bendable metal and is not attracted by magnets. As it is the most toxic metal on the road, it's always good policy to wash your hands after sorting your recyclables.
Steel and iron (which can be stored and recycled together) are attracted to magnets and are easy to identify. Most nuts, bolts, nails, screws, etc., are made of steel. So too are a host of other items you find on the street. Tin is attracted to magnets as well but is lighter than steel and iron and usually in the form of cans.
If the nuts, bolts, screws, nails and other bits of metal you found don't respond to a magnet, you’re likely to be handling bits of brass or aluminum. Non-can aluminum is most often a dull light grey and carries little weight. This should be segregated in its own barrel separate from the cans.
Heavier items might be brass. Yellow brass and red brass are easy to identify by their color but silver brass takes a little more work. Most plumbing fittings and electrical plug prongs are made of brass. When in doubt, take a metal file to the yet to be identified metal and scrape off an edge of its surface. If it's yellow underneath, you have brass. Store it with your other brass finds.
Most wire is copper, even when silver in color. Some plumbing and appliance pipes are copper as well. While the quantities of road copper and brass may be small, these metals are also the most valuable of your salvaged materials. A magnet will help you separate the rare steel wire from the copper wire.
I always end up with residual metal items I'm unable to identify. They are often amalgams of various metals and have little scrap value but recycling them is still important in our battle to preserve the Earth. I sort these into their own bucket. Most salvage yards have bins to dump these into though you'll usually receive no money for them. When in doubt, ask what to do with these metals.
It is important to note that scrap yards are governed by state laws in addition to having yard specific policies. You need to bring in a minimum of ten pounds of copper, brass, non-can aluminum or stainless steel before the scrap yards can consider a purchase. The yard where I take my steel also requires a minimum of 500 lbs. You will also need to produce a picture I.D. for the sale of these metals. This is to discourage those stealing these metals from reselling them at scrap yards.
Some scrap yards pay a per pound premium on aluminum cans if you bring in more than 100 lbs. If you're looking to maximize the money for your cans and have a site available to store them while you're collecting your 100 lbs, you might consider this option.
I'm fortunate that the two salvage yards I've selected to sell my metals are only a couple blocks off my normal driving route to work. One gives a higher price for copper and brass and the other for aluminum cans. I use each accordingly. You can find the closet salvage yard to you or along your normal drives on the internet.