Scrap-collecting twins are old pros
A man with a grey beard and a baseball cap rides a red Craftsman lawn tractor up Gage Avenue in east Hamilton.
He’s towing a cart that’s full of scrap metal, bottles and cans.
Another man with a grey beard and baseball cap sits leisurely in a second cart attached to the first.
The man in the driver’s seat is Richard Lichty. The guy in the back is Steve “Pops” Hoyland, his twin brother.
The pair putter along the side of the busy street on a sunny summer afternoon as motorists in more conventional vehicles rubberneck at the odd scenario.
But the 67-year-old twins are familiar sights in this part of town.
Their tractors and carts make the rounds several hours a day collecting people’s junk.
Cans, bottles, hot water tanks, air conditioners, stoves, washing machines.
“Anything we can get our hands on,” Hoyland says.
This afternoon, the last load includes an old radio, television, stainless steel, a bunch of tin and copper.
“We’re just a couple of guys trying to make a few dollars.”
The brothers cash in their wares at a scrap yard on Sherman Avenue North.
It’s with some pride that Hoyland, also known as “Pops,” says they’ve put away some cash. “We just went to the bank.” After a long day on the road, they’re on their way to Gertrude Street in the northeast end, where they’ll park the tractor in a backyard full of salvaged items backing onto a railway track.
“We’re getting bigger and bigger every year,” Hoyland says about their operation.
The sky has bee threatening rain for hours. It finally starts pouring a few minutes after Lichty pulls into the backyard of their home. A freight train rumbles by.
Hoyland pulls a tarp over the tractor and the cart to shield it from the rain.
He says the brothers do their own repairs to the tractors and wagons. He points out the carts have yield signs and flags for safety.
Hoyland, Lichty and his wife share the white, two-storey home with a big front porch that resembles an old Wild West hotel.
“We used be on Cannon Street. The city put us way up here,” Hoyland says.
You might remember the trio from a couple of years ago. They’d been living in a squalid Cannon Street East apartment for two years when The Spectator spoke to them.
CityHousing and Catholic Family Services jumped to their aid while municipal officials launched an investigation into their landlord.
Readers also responded with donations and acts of kindness to help out.
Hoyland says they pay $1,500 in rent plus hydro and gas at their current home.
“That takes his Old Age cheque and my Old Age cheque. That’s why we do this.”
This involves getting up at the crack of dawn to search for scrap. They might collect as many as four loads a day depending on when they hit the road, Hoyland says.
“Then we tear stuff apart. That’s how we make our money.”
People save stuff and call them over when they see them driving by, he says. On the road, the brothers are a hit. They draw stares, honks, smiles and laughter. At one red light, a woman gets out of her vehicle, pulls out a phone and shoots a photo of the brothers, all too happy to oblige.
“We really don’t make that much, but we make enough to keep afloat every day.”
Hoyland pulls the back gate shut and locks it. He joins his brother on the front veranda. “You tired?” The road awaits them at 5 a.m.
A collaborative approach with government and business could help improve working and living conditions for binners while safeguarding the environment, the study proposes.