America: Starting with Daily Intelligence
Chapter 72 - 72 72 Selling Jars

72: Chapter 72: Selling Jars 72: Chapter 72: Selling Jars It took some effort, but they managed to clean out the treasure trove around Y1 Street and Y2 Street near Sunkist Bar.

They found a bounty of goods, including two boxes of cookies, half a pack of Leaf cigarettes, half a bottle of Whiskey, and a total of 9 US dollars in paper currency and coins.

Following Allen Zhang’s suggestion, David drove the garbage truck back to the main base to load up the other cans, preparing to go to the recycling station on Eito Street to sell them.

From now on, moving stuff around would be much easier with the garbage truck.

Monica and Leo, on the other hand, took the new Beggar Gang Disciples back to the construction site shelter to arrange accommodations for them.

The blatant misuse of the public bus caught the attention of the bar manager, Mary, who immediately sent a message to Allen Zhang.

Mary: Some Black kid took the garbage truck earlier, was he one of your guys?

Allen Zhang: That’s right, I used that truck to clean up the garbage bins on the streets, contributing to the city’s environmental protection!

Don’t worry, I’ll fill the truck up with gas!

Mary: Alright then, you better bring the garbage truck back before dark, or I won’t be able to explain it to the boss.

Remember to pay my business a visit when you have the time!

And bring your rich friends along.

Allen Zhang: Ok.

After chatting a bit more, Allen Zhang managed to convince Mary to turn a blind eye to the incident, promising to take care of her business.

The two reached a pleasant cooperative “py trade” agreement.

Allen Zhang pocketed his cell phone and rode his bicycle to Old Karl’s recycling center on Eito Street.

“Hey!

Karl!” As he arrived, he saw the white, overweight old man sorting cans.

“Why are you alone?

Didn’t that white kid Dominic come with you?”

Old Karl remembered Allen Zhang and was surprised not to see Dominic with him, “What brings you here, have you saved up enough cans, or do you have other stuff to sell?

If you have valuable items, I recommend you sell them at the pawnshop, I only take trash here.”

Allen Zhang explained with a smile: “Dominic’s currently at the police station with a friend, he might not be able to make it.

I did indeed save up a lot of cans these past days, more than you’d expect, I hope you can offer a fair price!” He checked today’s recycling rates.

Transparent beverage bottles, 1.35 US dollars per pound.

Aluminum cans, 1.65 US dollars per pound.

Cardboard, 0.01 US dollars per pound.

Glass bottles, 0.15 US dollars per pound.

The prices were much lower than before, and the recycling rates are unstable almost every day.

“What’s up?

Did he get into trouble?

That kid doesn’t seem like the type to break rules.”

“Relax, Karl, it’s not what you think.

On the contrary, Dominic might benefit from this situation.

He might even receive a Good Citizen award.

Don’t you watch the news?”

Allen Zhang casually took out his smartphone and searched for recent popular videos from Los Angeles for Karl to watch.

“I indeed don’t like playing with smartphones much, that’s something for you young folks.

I’m an old man who spends his days with garbage, half in the grave, I simply don’t have that interest.

I only like beautiful women and alcohol!”

Karl glanced at the video and saw footage captured by the media, including the Mayor of Los Angeles and the City Council giving speeches that were unequivocal, praising the fearless spirit of the Los Angeles officers and acts of kindness that good citizens should emulate, to reduce fights and racial discrimination.

This is a free country, it shouldn’t be filled with hate and struggle.

Karl scoffed immediately, “These politicians are always trying to grab people’s attention.

The topic of Black people vs.

White people never ends, there’s nothing new under the sun!

Do you believe that while they preach love and peace, they’d turn around and point at a Black person, calling them a Black Devil?”

“You’re right, saying one thing and doing another, that’s just the nature of politicians, isn’t it?” Allen Zhang said.

Then he conveniently pulled up a stool and sat down to chat and wait.

It wasn’t long before David had gathered all the cans from the underpass camp and arrived at the recycling center on Eito Street in his garbage truck.

Under Allen’s direction, they parked and unloaded all the cans.

“So many cans?

You guys really gave me a surprise!”

Old Karl was stunned by the sight of the garbage truck, “If there were more, the amount of cans would be enough to call for the recycling company’s crew to come pick them up.”

“The recycling companies actually send people to pick up cans?

Does that mean they have specialized transportation fleets?” Allen Zhang was surprised.

“That’s right, in the beginning there were people who drove garbage trucks and freight trucks to contract the transportation of cans, but later their fleets were taken over by the big recycling companies.

They also serve as middlemen cooperating with various private recycling stations, and every time they’re called to transport goods they need to pay the driver about 1 cent per can in profit.”

“Do you have their contact information?” Allen Zhang asked.

“That’s trade secret, kid!” Old Karl immediately refused to divulge any information.

“If you don’t have recycling qualifications and environmental certifications, when the recycling companies send people to pick up, they’ll only press the price down even lower, might not even pay you, but instead charge you an expensive transportation fee.

This line of work, although profitable, is not that simple and not just anyone can do it!”

“Ok.” Seeing that Old Karl was not willing to say more, Allen Zhang didn’t ask further.

In this industry, the big recycling companies are the big brothers, all cans eventually flow to them, then they process them into materials to sell to other material manufacturers or beverage companies to make new bottles.

The beverage water itself is worthless, the cost of cheap beverages is even lower than the cost of one can.

Drink it, pee it out, it’s gone.

How well it sells totally relies on advertising and marketing, on technology and hard work, and on sugar content.

The big recycling stations are middlemen, can recycling teams are laborers, mainly handling transportation.

Shoppers are both gods and endlessly harvestable leeks—they pay for both the drinks and the cans!

Old Karl, as a middleman of the recycling station, makes his money from the difference in price.

Allen Zhang, as a can collector, is just part of the working class.

If he opened his own recycling station or bypassed the transfer station to work directly with the big brothers, he would definitely compete with other recycling stations for business, something that Old Karl wouldn’t want to see, he’d rather cooperate with Allen Zhang for the long term.

But how can a man born in this world tolerate living forever beneath others?

Sooner or later, Allen Zhang was bound to sharpen his knife and enter the secondary market, cutting through obstacles, washing the streets in blood.

Transport workers, middlemen making a profit—I want it all!

After weighing everything, Old Karl went to get the money.

The total value of the cans and other items recycled amounted to 632 US Dollars.

David and Gate also recorded separately how much each had collected.

Allen Zhang didn’t need such hassle; regardless of who collected the cans, he would take 20% off the top at settlement, and the rest they would distribute among themselves.

For the Beggar Gang Disciples such as Eddie, the first day at their job was payday, although not much, with each only getting ten to twenty US Dollars, it was still enough to buy new clothes at the discount store or to have a good meal!

For the development of the Beggar Gang, this was a historical milestone of progress.

The General Sect Leader also received a cut of 126 US Dollars, bringing his total assets to 7357 US Dollars!

Some words, no matter how pleasing they are to hear, are never as motivational as putting US dollars in someone’s hands.

Painting too many pie-in-the-sky pictures is not a good thing.

Everyone was here for the promises of the General Sect Leader; if he failed to deliver on his promises, the prestige of the General Sect Leader would certainly decline.

Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.