Everyone who has been desperate to scrounge up some cash to pay the rent, credit card, college loan bill, or even just some cash to go out for the night has had the “why don’t I just rummage through the recycling baskets for cans and bottles and collect the 5 cents for each bottle. Off course, for various reasons nobody actually goes through with the plan, except for a group of kick ass enterprising women who I have dubbed The Elderly Asian Lady Can Collecting Syndicate. I have seen these enterprising women in Waltham, Watertown, Cambridge, and Boston. What these women do is simple enough; they walk around town looking through recycling and trash receptacles for cans and bottles to recycle and collect the 5 cents. Don’t think these women do this out of some sort of homeless desperation; I talked to a neighbor who talks with one of the Can Collecting Syndicate women when the woman is rummaging through their recycling bin who tells me that the Can Collecting women owns her own home. I give kudos to these women for their hard work and enterprising spirit. The only thing that could impress me more then their current efforts would be if these women pulled off the Kramer/Newman/Michigan 10 cent can refund plan.

Here are some pictures of the Elderly Asian Lady Can Collection Syndicate and their weekly haul of cans: