BK Recycles

In Oregon most homes are provided with, and make good use of a few plastic boxes in which you neatly separate all your recyclable goods, even plastics. Then, once a week you put your boxes out on the street and the Recycling truck swings by, smiling, and takes them away. It feels good. It's a system you can have faith in.

Needless to say, when I moved to NY three years ago I was horrified by the notable insufficiency of Recycling here. For my first year in Lefferts Gardens I was one of the only tenants who placed my bottles and tins outside, separated from the rubbish. Then I moved to Bushwick, to an old industrial hood in an expeditiously developing area. My landlord promises me that the private garbage company separates recyclables from trash - but my conscience just can't take the mindless mingling of garbage, paper and bottle all in one place.

Asf I settled into living here, gradually noticing the depth of my ecology - I started to uncover a very productive recycling system at play. New York City's garbage sector is run by private enterprise; thus, it operates very much like a business - and is quite difficult to grasp. However, there is a folk system occurring on the streets. Intricately run by immigrant families, and those who have caught on and need the extra dimes to make ends meet. NY's garbage piles on the streets and in rubbish bins provide a plethora of potential petty cash.


Immigrants make up 37% of New York's population and 48% of its labor force. Earlier in August a report was released that the effects of the current Recession are effecting immigrant unemployment at a greater rate than Native citizens. The unemployment rate among immigrants in the country was at 4% at the beginning of the recession, and rose to 8.8% during the first months of 2010.

I decided to follow the system at play in my own neighborhood and found staggering results. Each night and early morn people from all over the world walk the streets of their communities in Brooklyn and collect recyclable materials from garbage heaps. Families will separate around neighborhoods, then rejoin, like flocks of birds - ending at places like the 'Redemption Center' on Flushing Avenue. It is a processing hub for old cans and bottles to be separated and amassed with corresponding brands; the result is a stockpile of thousands of cans of Red Bull, Bud or Papbst bagged together, which will actually get returned back to their respective corporations. The people congregate there, separate their goods and are redeemed for the work with a 5 cent bottle return. Some families come with vans full of industrial size garbage bags, containing thousands of bottles and cans.

We must each analyze the system at work in our own neighborhoods and decide the best way to take part. We can all separate our recyclable items, and even make them more readily accessible to the people whom are using the system to all of our benefit.