Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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One time years ago I rode around Roanoke with Robert Berger in his "hustlin' truck."

Berger worked nights at the Eaton Yale lock company.

By day, he picked up recyclable cardboard and other items from businesses around the valley. He sold it to Cycle Systems.

Berger impressed me with his energy and entertained me with his working man's wisdom.

We also encountered a competitor.

He and Berger hustled to cover the same turf.

The businesses didn't care who took the stuff. They just wanted to get rid of it.

There is another kind of hustler who scavenges on residential streets, picking up large items to cash in with.

Berger had permission from the businesses where he picked up trash. That is legal.

People who take solid waste set out for collection by city crews break the law, said Frank "Skip" Decker, Roanoke's solid waste manager.

They can also cost city taxpayers money.

Money to be made

In recent years, prices paid for recycled items have been steady and relatively high. Asian countries thirst for certain metals and mixed paper. The latter constitutes the largest percentage of Roanoke's materials by far.

High prices make profitable the filching of aluminum and tin cans from residents' recycling containers and the hauling of "white goods" -- refrigerators, freezers and the like -- from their curbside spots, Decker said.

Each plucked pound eats into the city's target of 225 tons of recyclables per month.

Hitting that target eliminates the fee charged to the city by Cycle Systems.

Exceeding it sometimes generates money back from the recycling company.

Missing the target creates a cost.

Widespread routes

Roanoke collects recyclables from across the city, including 34 schools and 63 businesses.

On average, the city hits the target tonnage eight months per year. Sometimes it misses by only a few tons.

Drivers of the city's brush trucks note residential addresses where large recyclable items await pickup. After they finish their brush routes, they return the same day to get them.

Decker estimates that 14 out of 15 times nowadays, somebody beats the trucks to them.

He wants people to wait at least until dawn before setting out such items. This might reduce the scavenging.

The Roanoke police know about this problem, but it falls well down their priority list.

In March, the city provided Cycle Systems with nearly 249 tons of recyclables. That saved $11,203.20 in landfill tipping fees.

Because the target was met, Cycle Systems charged the city nothing.

In April, the city delivered nearly 175 tons, or 50 tons less than the target. That saved $7,861.50 in landfill tipping fees.

But the recycler charged $1,957.45 for taking the materials.

That reduced the city's savings to $5,904.05.

White goods constitute a small percentage of the city's monthly haul. In March, they amounted to 5.61 tons. Hitting the overall target saved the city $252.45.

In April, they weighed 1.54 tons. Missing the target cost $69.30.

That's a drop of 4 tons. Compared with the figures for mixed paper -- 193 tons in March alone -- white goods are small beans.

But over time, the tonnage adds up and subtracts from the savings.

One of Decker's frustrations is that "not enough people want to recycle -- it's not mandated," the way it was in New Jersey, where he came from eight years ago.

At that time, Roanoke's recycling program covered just one-third of the city, and only 7 percent of materials -- from households, businesses and such -- were recycled.

Now the entire city is covered and, counting businesses that recycle on their own, 40 percent of those materials are turned in for re-use, Decker said.

The program makes money, but that's not the point, he said. The goal is to save the environment and save money.

Recycling saves Roanoke $250,000 in tipping fees annually, he said.

Now I admire Robert Berger even more. When I rode with him, he worked for what he got, and he didn't steal a thing.