Money on the Curb

In the New York Times they recently ran an article about people stealing recycling off the street. Now you might think that the city wouldn't care if there was less recycling to deal with, but it turns out that they make some revenue off the stuff. And if the city can make money so can someone else.

I usually don't put my recycling in the building's bin but bring it to the curb myself. The last couple of times there hasn't been any glass/plastic/metal recycling out, only paper. At first I thought maybe the schedule had changed but the buildings across the street and down the block had it out so I just put mine down and hoped it would be okay. Then last week when I went down the paper was missing too. And there were two guys stuffing bags into the back of an SUV. Not bad work if you can get it. After all, someone else has done all the hard work, they've even left it conveniently located for easy pick up. Isn't capitalism marvelous? No niche goes unfilled.