NYC 2017 - 2019.
A look in the world of people collecting bottles and cans on the streets of New York City and the business that surrounds it.
Is the trash singing? Project description Margaux Helleu
The Lower East Side was my little American ‘mise en bouche’ to the making of this project.
Thursday, September 7th 2017, it's 5 AM, a truck smashes the collected glass with ease. I look outside and seeing a silhouette that is accompanied by bags of cans and bottles, was a call to go downstairs to investigate...
A Chinese lady, in her 70’s is covered from head to toes with layers of clothes, hats and gloves.
She explained to me how the business worked here as we walked and collected threw the night with her two big bags hanging from a bamboo stick.
The following Monday after class, I get on the F train around 6.30 pm.
A Chinese lady is sleeping in the corner of the train car.
Next to her are two bags filled with bottles and cans resting on each other.
As she was trying to sleep I didn’t want to bother her but funnily enough, since then we met around the same time, around the same seat.
In October, stumbling upon 'Sure We Can' became the place to transforming my story into this project.
'Sure We Can, located in Bushwick, is an NGO founded by Ana De Luco and Eugene Gadsden. Focused on recycling, composting and on educating the neighborhood about their mission, They offer the canners a place to work, select and count the bottles and cans, with a place to store them.
Canners from all around meet and work around each other, exchange bottles and keep their mind busy for the day.
Spanish music is blasting around accompanied with the orchestra of bags, bottles, glass and cans.
After coming back often to this redemption center, I got to select with Maria.
Maria meticulously classifies plastic bottles by brands once they are collected.
Working at the center for two, three months was interesting but the bottles were already all in bags. I was intrigued to learn more about the people in the streets collecting them, what i had been doing in Hong Kong.
In January 2018, I met José and that’s where it took a new turn. I got used to working with them but the streets were different. In HongKong, as much as i used gestures, asked my doorman or use google translate to communicate, language had still been a bit of a barrier.
José speaks fluent english so i think with the time this helped and motivated me not only to take pictures to document or memories but to try to use them further, I was starting to see the potential of this project and how my years in Hong Kong had taught me so much already and this idea of a guide came to mind.
José is a sixty five years old Puerto Rican man who’s been living in New York for quiet a while. That day, he was waiting for bottles to get down from a building. His usual Tuesday 4 pm.
We talked for a bit, and I asked him to met the next day, and the day after that.
We met four times a week to go collect around Mid-Town.
This lasted for two years.
He has been collecting for about nine years in Manhattan.
He goes out on the streets four times a week from 10 am to 5 pm.
Often takes short breaks in between the buildings and walks about forty fifty blocks a day,
He collects to keep his mind busy and to earn some pocket money while cleaning up the streets.
He starts by collecting from the buildings, where the bottles are often a bit cleaner. Gloves on and the search to the singing trash started.
‘Is the trash singing?’ José had made a whole game and song to collect.
I got to know New York by it’s trash bags and walks with José, it was great.
Once the buildings done, we would walk up to Times Square collecting bottles on the way.
Meeting his friends along the way, days would often finish by sitting for a while with a slice of pizza.
The treasures and the walk in the city speaks for its self, we could pick up 1600 cans and bottles on a regular day, translating to 80 dollars; and a possibility to make up to 100 to 150 dollars on a warm and sunny day, where people tend to drink more.
It varies a lot, depending on the time and weather, but at the end of the day, you are always sure to find some bottles, and other objects.. MacBook Pro, cigars,
beach chairs, fur coats , speakers and much more..
Other families could earn up to 300 dollars per day by collecting five times a week and with a good organization.
The aim was and is , to use my photographs as a way of guiding someone through the process of collecting.
A pocket size black and white photographic guide explaining the process and showing the work of the canners.
With the help of Jose for the main advices, and the stories of the other canners, the guide enriched and close to finalisation.
I would like to spread this guide on the streets, translate it into Spanish and Chinese, and other languages if possible, and really put it the out there. I think it is also to have a version were it would only be photography, a bit like the IKEA guides, they are universal because there are very few, if no words.. It would be very simple but simple enough to be understood by everybody and buy showing how much you can collect i hope it can motivate some to start the process.
If executed well, the project accomplishes two core objectives.
First, it helps disadvantaged people and gives them an opportunity to create a fair wage for themselves.
Secondly, it creates a new dynamic of cleaning up the streets while keeping your mind busy... to be continued
This is a story about changing people’s perceptions on how we treat the canners and how we treat our planet.
