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A Debunk Of Junk

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By CRAIG CHILDS

Special to the Los Angeles Times

Published: December 6, 2008

A farm couple in Colorado opened their fields in November to gleaners, giving away what was left of their harvest. Expecting about 5,000 people, they were shocked when 40,000 arrived. This might be a sign of the times. As the economy plummets, we enter an environment ripe for scavengers. From field gleaners to garage-sale aficionados, they are everywhere and are coming from everywhere. I am one of them, a modern hunter-gatherer.

I cannot walk by a pen dropped on the street without checking it for ink, then slipping it into my pocket. There's something primal and deeply satisfying about searching for the manna of civilization. A dismal city landscape becomes a carnival of possibilities.

My bathtub came out of a house that was being torn down. The same for most of the windows and doors in my house. My collection of mismatched work gloves came from the street.

In some cases, scavenging is a matter of survival. Dump gleaners in India - who probably will never see life outside a landfill - collect about $280 million a year in salvageable materials from mountains of garbage. Around the world, this occupation is stigmatized and sometimes made illegal, which does nothing but drive scavengers deeper into poverty.

Meanwhile, scavengers across the nation are denuding cities of wire, screws, nails, copper pipe, manhole covers and even grave markers, taking them to the nearest salvage yard where they can easily pull $30 a day.

Scavenging has never been a noble art. May I suggest, however, that we lift scavenging out of the darkness and sing the praises of those who cull the world. With retirement funds freshly trashed and banks falling into black holes, it might be time for many of us to exercise our inner hunter-gatherer, the part of us with nimble fingers and rooting curiosity.

The old habit might soon be a necessary way of life.

Craig Childs is author of "The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild."

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