How three New Yorkers make a living by collecting cans off the streets.
On a recent Wednesday evening, the blue-tinted plastic-bags loaded with empty cans and drained bottles look like a bunch of garbage to passers-by on the corner of Riverside Drive and West 89th Street. But to a group of family members from Queens, headed up by Jeanett Pilatacsi, they symbolize a livelihood.
Jeanett Pilatacsi with members of her family, who collect up to 100 bags of cans a day — a haul worth $1,000.“St. Patrick’s Day was the best day,” Del Carmen told The Post. “Everyone starts drinking early. So, from 2 p.m. until 4 a.m., going from bar to bar, between 42nd Street and 45th Street, I made $800, working alone, in one day. They threw away empty bottles and cans, and I took them.”
“This is better than my old job, working in a candle factory,” she told The Post. “It was too many hours for too little money. Now, my family and I, we work together, from noon until 8pm, collecting cans until we fill up our truck.” “Fifteen years ago, my father lost his job in construction,” she said. “It was scary. We did not know how we would pay the rent. He went out with a shopping cart and started gathering cans. Now he is retired and we took over.”
After a day of canning in Manhattan, where they tend to forage from 99th to 86th Streets, Pilatacsi likes to unwind with a shower, family dinner and telenovela before going to bed, waking up the next morning and starting all over again. “Most people who work all night, they go home,” Palonci told The Post. “I spend the morning sorting through my cans, organizing them, putting them in the proper bags. It’s hard work, but it is the best work for me.”Besides providing money, he said it earns him respect. “I work on Bedford Street,” said Palonci, who said he suffers from type 2 diabetes and transports his redeemable goods in a cart. “The bar owners know me and know that there will be no disorder from me. I am a professional.