Originally Posted by Ryuuk

A lot of the drug addicts in my area strip the light poles on the side of the highway for copper and recycle it. It's pretty profitable. Others dumpster dive for cans and bottles.

At my girlfriend's house, there's bags and bags of bottles because they drink bottled water like crazy. When we recycle what they've been using for a couple of months, we get about $100 back. A few months ago, a homeless guy discovered the stash of bottles and started stealing two or three bags a day and biking them to the recycling center. It wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't try to break into the house, too, while my girlfriend's kid sister was home. After that, we tracked him down with a baseball bat. He doesn't steal their bags anymore, and we haven't seen him in town since.