Canners are those who supplement their income and pensions picking up cans and bottles on city streets for a redeemable value. Some of them make a living and pay a rent with the money earned canning. A small number of canners are people struggling with addiction, trying to scrape together just enough to buy a sandwich or survive. When the Bottle Bill first came into effect, the population of canners was much less diverse than it is now. Homeless blacks and veterans were among the first to start canning. Today, the engines of the Bottle Bill continue to be the city's disadvantaged: Latin Americans and Chinese immigrants, the elderly, people who lost or quit their jobs, and college students all can for many reasons.
There is no accurate data on the activity of canning, but people involved in the sector claim that more than 10,000 people pick up empty cans on the streets of New York to make some money. We mapped the experience of eight of them