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In San Francisco, Making a Living From Your Billionaire Neighbor's Trash
Three blocks from Mark Zuckerberg's $10 million Tudor home in San Francisco, Jake Orta lives in a small, single-window studio apartment filled with trash.
There's a child's pink bicycle helmet that Mr. Orta dug out from the garbage bin across the street from Mr. Zuckerberg's house. And a vacuum cleaner, a hair dryer, a coffee machine — all in working condition — and a pile of clothes that he carried home in a Whole Foods paper bag retrieved from Mr. Zuckerberg's bin.
A military veteran who fell into homelessness and now lives in government subsidized housing, Mr. Orta is a full-time trash picker, part of an underground economy in San Francisco of people who work the sidewalks in front of multimillion-dollar homes, rummaging for things they can sell.
One Zuck's trash is another man's "like new".
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 07 2019, @08:41PM (2 children)
What would a charity do with it? I have no clue how wasteful Zuckenberg is, but at one point, I had to get rid of half a ton of cheap sci fi/fantasy books (let's say a certain vice got a little out of hand and I had to move). Libraries wouldn't take them. I didn't have the resources to figure out who would or how I'd get those books to them. So I gave up and paid someone $500 to throw them away.
Point is that donating stuff to charity is hard once it gets past mundane items. Nowadays, most of the stuff I get rid of, I can donate via Goodwill or dump on a "free pile" for my coworkers to sort through.
But having said that, if anyone is recycling esoteric stuff, I figure the Bay Area would.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday April 07 2019, @09:53PM
Drop them off at a 'Value Village' or whatever (charity store): they'll take it and make a profit off it. Up here in Canada (is value village in the states?) Value village supports Cerebral Palsy (how much %$wise is donated?...dunno).
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @01:43AM
Jails and prisons usually will take books, and they need them badly.