Every week, I place my blue recycle can out at the curbside so that the city can collect my papers, bags, bottles and cans.
The night before collection, an armada of braceros pushing shopping carts, marches down the street, and opens each blue container and removes those recyclables before the truck arrives. By the time the truck gets here, I wonder if 90% of what’s inside is gone.
Not only do these collectors take away cans and bottles, but they sit and read, as if they were detectives or librarians, any magazines, papers and documents that might be inside the blue refuse container.
Woe to anyone who thinks that their privacy might be protected in the garbage. I hope that everyone who recycles also owns a paper shredder! And what exactly is LA recycling when most of what they come to collect is missing?
Here in Van Nuys 
It’s not just stray mail–it’s those unwanted credit card offers. Identity theft via trash pickers is a huge business, and the unwary get ripped off.
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I too have this same “problem” while I am ok with people taking the cans and bottles to recycle – I do mind paying the fees to have the extra blue bin that we needed because we literally recycle everything possible if it’s on the LA Sanitations recycling list.
One thing that freaks me out is that they’re pawing through my trash on a weekly basis – I’ve considered keeping the blue bin in my driveway near the house until just before the trash guy gets there.
At least the stray piece of mail won’t get ripped off.
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I make about 300K a year, but i am cheaper than hell. I steal bottles, cans, you name it from the garbage. F the homeless and the city, i got bills to pay too – so far i have about 300 bucks from bottling since april – i live in santa monica and rip off from yoga studios, tennis courts and neighbors addicted to diet coke.
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If you can’t open it, how are you supposed to recycle large cardboard boxes?
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As long as they don’t make a mess, I don’t mind. It will still be recycled. Also, everyone should shred documents with sensitive information. It’s not the braceros we should worry about that on that end, it’s the ones with a row of servers in their living room.
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The Bureau of Sanitation is already looking into a redesign of blue bins, especially a “scavenger-proof” design that cannot be opened unless it’s tipped over 180 degrees. Thing is, the current bins have a life of 7-10 years, so the new ones could only be phased in once the current ones are phased out.
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