Meet the Mexican Couple Making a Living as Recyclers in New York City

Although they both had other more traditional jobs in the past, cleaning, catering and childcare, they are now collecting cans full time. They live in Bushwick, near Sure We Can, one of the city’s 20 Redemption Centers, located in a neighborhood of Brooklyn. With their job they have enough to pay their rent of $1,200 a month, and cover their basic expenses. “I dedicate up to 14 hours a day to collecting and classifying cans, and he is very tired, but I like it”, says Josefa.

Sure We Can —which translates as ‘Of course we can’, but which is a play on words since “can” in English means can— is a center founded in 2007 by a Spanish nun, Ana de Luco, and Eugene Gadsden. In 2022, the center served 1,200 wingers, to whom it returned more than $700,000. Redemption centers accept empty containers, redeem them, and pay recyclers for each can or bag of cans.

Marín and Romero complain about the low value their work receives: “it’s a job like any other,” says Romero, and the fact that their salary has been stagnant since 2009.

5 cents per can

In 1982, the Returnable Containers Act, known as the Bottle Bill, was implemented in response to a protest over the large number of glass and plastic containers in New York public spaces. This law meant that, for the first time, for each plastic can returned to the state, five cents on the dollar were paid. The consumer pays an extra five cents per drink, which he can recover by returning the empty container. In 2009, the fee was raised slightly and bottled water was included.

Since consumers did not have the incentive to return the cans, there were many people, such as Josefa Marín and Pedro Romero, who became professional can pickers. To earn a dollar, you need to collect 20 cans. If 100 cans are collected an hour, it costs 5 dollars —about 4.6 euros—. And not only do you have to collect them, but you also have to classify them by type of can or bottle and brand, a task that, in general, , is done later. If a recycler collects 1,000 cans a week, he would earn a total of 2,600 dollars a year – about 2,380 euros.

Although it doesn’t pay very well, some people are drawn to the profession for the flexibility and bureaucratic ease it offers, among other reasons. Ryan Castelli, executive director of Sure We Can, explains that lateros are typically people who experience barriers to traditional employment, whether it be due to racism, classism, language difficulties, physical or mental disabilities, older people who cannot do normal jobs, or simply people who want more independence, to obtain additional income.

For Josefa Marín and Pedro Romero, one of the reasons that led them to dedicate themselves to collecting cans was that they do not speak English, and that they do not have documentation from the United States to be able to be hired legally.

“When it’s cold I have a runny nose, when it’s hot I’m sweating, and if it rains I get wet, but I do my job 12 months a year, whatever the weather,” says Josefa. To which Pedro adds that “it’s hard work, but we have music, atmosphere, and joy, we have everything.” Regarding competition and coexistence with colleagues, “we try to understand each other, whatever,” says Josefa.

The recycler couple goes out to collect cans on Wednesdays and Sundays during the day, and on Fridays and Saturdays at night, in the Williamsburg neighborhood (close to their home and to Sure We Can), known for being a neighborhood of young people from upper-middle class and many bars and atmosphere. Pedro and Josefa meet the doormen and waiters of the premises, who keep cans for them. “Recyclers also have feelings, we have a life, a family, and a place to live. We have made our job a method to save the planet”, says Josefa.

Redemption centers like Sure We Can, which in 2022 served a record 1,200 people, receive an extra 3.5 cents for each can or bottle. In the case of Sure We Can, as it is a non-profit organization, it serves to redistribute to the community. Lateros receive up to an additional 1.5 cents per piece, Castelli explains.

Workshops are also organized and vests are distributed to members to show that they are workers like any other, as well as allowing them to rent a space to store their merchandise at an affordable price. Additionally, that money is used to pay recyclers who are sick so they can survive.

A law that benefits everyone

Ryan Thoresen Carson, organizer of the Solid Waste campaign of the NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group) believes that “the Bottle Law should be modernized to include popular non-carbonated beverages, wine, spirits and cider and thus increase the value of the deposit redeemable at 10 cents.”

Carson explains that expanding a Bottle Law would be a huge financial benefit to both New York municipalities and the state as a whole. By recycling an additional 5.5 billion containers, it is estimated that New York municipalities would save $71 million a year (about $65 million a year).

Thanks to the Returnable Containers Law, in 2020 5,500 million plastic, glass and aluminum were recycled at no cost to local governments. Right now, both the redemption centers and the NYPIRG are advocating for passage of the Bigger Better Bottle bill in the legislature.

In Sure We Can, Jessica Barbecho is in charge of receiving the recyclers, as well as various administrative tasks, such as paying them when they deliver their cans. “I open every day at 7:30 in the morning, and I have to arrive on time, because there are always wingers already waiting.”

Fallow says that the most complicated challenge of his work is that of language barriers. “Everyone speaks their own language, and it is often difficult to communicate,” he says. Although there are no official figures, most recyclers are of Latino or Asian origin. Ryan Castelli adds that there is also a relevant number of African-Americans. In the entire center, he adds, there are only two white wingers.

“Recyclers try to save our planet, so I hope people become aware and realize that cleaning the streets is everyone’s job and that our work is essential for the city to be habitable,” concludes Josefa.