A New Record for Junk Collectors

Sometimes, the most satisfying projects aren't the ones you can photograph. Today was like that. Ted and I were standing in the garage, contemplating what to do with a ginormous pile of scrap metal left by the previous owners. Most of it was extra garage door parts--springs and tracks and the like--that we've been hanging onto "just in case." But we recently decided that if the garage door ever does need to be replaced, we'll convert it back to a two-door style and won't need this stuff, anyway.

"Let's just haul it all to the curb," I said. "It's garbage night, and I'm sick of looking at it."

"Okay," Ted agreed. "We'll leave it for the tinkers."

Almost every day, we can spot an overloaded pickup truck slowly driving down our street in search of scrap metal. There are so many of them, in fact, that the city considers them a nuisance and wants to start regulating them. Evanston, which charges a $25 fee for special pickups, claims it lost nearly $90,000 in revenue last year to junk trucks that beat them out. I say "whatever," we already pay a lot in taxes and fees 'round here, and if a junk collectors does take something, at least we know for sure it's actually being recycled.

"Let's just lean them against the bins, then," I said. And just as I was dragging out the first piece, what did I see rumbling down our alley? Yup, a junk truck. So instead of trying to figure out how to carefully balance everything without it spilling into the alleyway, we just waved the driver down instead, and he loaded up his truck directly. A new record for the removal of unwanted junk!

Eager to clear out more space, we decided to put a curb notice for an old refrigerator on Craigslist.com. Since last summer, I've been meaning to list it for fifty bucks or so, but never seemed to get around to it. The ad said it was on the driveway, come and get it if you want it. We rolled it out to the curb and...fifteen minutes later two big, burly guys drove up in an SUV to take it off our hands. Woo-hoo! A Craigslist record, too! I'm sure it will find a second life as a beer fridge in someone's garage.

So, while we didn't get much done on our place this weekend (although we did help my cousin hang up drywall at his), it felt like a satisfactory day just clearing out that stuff.

What do the rest of you think? Should junk trucks be regulated?

The Tinkers, Junk Trucks of Chicago

A Chicago junk truck
Photo by kristen60647

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor.
Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief...

I've mentioned the tinkers a couple of times in my posts without really elaborating on them, but they serve such a vital service to the Chicagoland area that they deserve a post all their own.

People usually refer to them as "the junk trucks." When I lived in Uptown Chicago, we'd see the ancient pickup trucks--loaded with an assortment of old air conditioners, beat-up shopping carts, and miscellaneous scrap metal--parked all up and down Lawrence and Broadway at night. Neighbors would often complain about them, because, let's face it, they're pretty much an eyesore. But what would we do without them?

Every day will find these trucks prowling up and down the alleys of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, looking for scrap metal and other valuables to sell to recycling centers. I started calling them "tinkers" as a nod to the metalsmiths of old who traveled the countryside, fixing and selling metal goods, and the Irish traveling people I encountered on my first trip to Ireland in '98, who were often referred to as tinkers. I don't know of anyone else who actually calls these junk truck drivers "tinkers" except me.

Like many communities, ours charges a special pick-up fee for large-item pickups--which includes furniture, appliances, etc. But it never really comes down to that. Leave anything of value in the alley, and chances are a junk truck will stop and haul your item away. We had so much crap left behind by the previous owners, that we've come to rely on the tinkers to help us out. They've hauled away old metal tables, broken aluminum windows, a washer/dryer set, and miscellaneous, unidentifiable bits of scrap metal. The city would have charged us hundreds of dollars for these pickups. The quickest pickup I witnessed was five minutes. Nothing has sat in the alley for more than two days. Why oh why would I ever complain if one of my junk-collecting neighbors wanted to park his crappy-looking truck in front of his own house? They've saved me money time and time again, and in this economy, every bit helps.

So "God bless the tinkers," I always say. What would we do without them?