Reminds me of college.

There was an old dude who used to go around my college campus rummaging through bins for recycleables.

Nice guy - he was always around so he was a fixture and students who saw him would often give him any empties they had.

He had been there before i started but by my 2nd year he had a saved enough to buy a small used car. It used to be full of empties and he'd use it to drive back and forth from the recycling depot. Pretty sure he lived out of it too.

I was amazed that he had gotten to saving enough from bottles and cans to buy a car.

As modest as it is in the grand scheme of things, i consider it the very definition of perserverence and hard work.