Me ol' man, who grew up in the Great Depression, told of the days when he use to follow the coal wagons, picking up bits and pieces of coal, as they shook out of the cart, so's to heat the house with.
While not a pretty sight, I can envision bag ladies and whatnot, scrounging for valuable, uhmmm, 'waste product', to sell to the local, uhmmm, recycler.
L~
"took me 3 long years to make a million bucks over night"