Economic dip means less money for trash scrappers

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Brad Stone said he once reeled in nearly $7,000 one year by picking up heavy trash in his 1985 Chevrolet Silverado.

Sitting in that gray pickup with his wife and baby daughter Thursday night, the nine-year veteran said proceeds from his "second job" haven't been as pretty lately.

"Recent times, with the economy going down," the 28-year-old told the Evansville Courier & Press, "everybody gets in their truck and does the same thing."

Stone was among several scrappers cruising a southeastern Evansville neighborhood Thursday night looking for metal to sell, appliances to fix and sell or whatever else might yield some cash.

"With so many people out of work," said Brent Heath of the 2500 block of East Riverside Drive, "they've got to make a dollar somehow."

The city's been contracting for heavy trash pickup since 2001. Allied Waste is the latest contractor, and the service gives residents a chance to get rid of bulky junk for free.

"It's supposed to be scavenger free," said Ed Ziemer, deputy director of the Evansville Water & Sewer Utility, "but obviously it's not."

The twice-a-year pickup has Allied Waste employees haul away furniture, appliances, construction material and more in designated neighborhoods over a two-month period.

In 2011, the contractor picked up 1,361 tons in the spring and 907 tons in the fall. Ziemer didn't have numbers available for 2012, but said it's "within a few pounds" of 2011 figures.

Before sunrise Friday, Allied Waste workers hit an area bound by Weinbach Avenue to the west, I-164 to the south, Vann Avenue to the east, and Covert Avenue to the north — so scrappers were out most of the previous night.

Thursday night, pickup truck engines — some with obvious service needs — could be heard about the neighborhood.

And kids playing street basketball had little respite from traffic.

With more scrappers on patrol, some said, those prized aluminum- and copper-containing items that residents haul out at any given moment may not sit out long as long as they used to.

The economy wasn't the only reason for the seemingly lackluster night, some said.

"This area over here, they just don't get rid of stuff like that," said David Thurman, 49. "They're low-income over here."

Thurman, who was with his wife looking for washers and dryers to fix and sell, said the contractor's frequency also hurts matters.

"With them doing it twice a year," he said, "you don't see as much."

Still, competition can get fierce. And that competition sometimes includes residents.

Robert Yeaden, who lives in the 2000 block of Waggoner Avenue, said last spring he went to pick up some old appliances his neighbor said he could have.

When he and a friend went to haul it, scrappers were already there.

"Greg and Kelly said we can take it," Yeaden told a scrapper, who responded: "Well, we'll whoop some (expletive) before you take it."

"I said, 'Look dude, $5 worth of scrap metal ain't worth it. Just take it.'"

The economy may explain why some residents get heavy trash service most of the year.

"I'll put something out in the alley, as far as metal," said Jeff Virgin of the 2100 block of Waggoner Avenue, "and I ain't kidding you: sometimes within hours and sometimes within a day, it's gone."