Hear that sound? It's not just any car honking. It's a pickup truck cruising through neighborhood alleys, looking for scrap metal. Though it's not that easy.

Mainly you go through alleys and you find metal that people threw out. You want copper, aluminum, brass, steel, stainless steel. Old air

conditioners, refrigerators, washers, broken bikes. If it contains metal, it has a price tag. Some

people collect scrap metal for a living, others for a few bucks. Procycling scrap metal is a

multi-billion dollar business in the United States.

Most of the steel that is produced in this country comes from scrap metal, about 70%.

Scrap metal is way cheaper and better for the environment, as opposed to mining raw materials.

There's a huge demand locally and across the globe.

In Chicago, these metal scrappers play a big role in cleaning up old stuff that would otherwise pile up in the alley and might eventually go to a landfill.

But oftentimes, it's hard to see who they are, who's behind the wheel. They do their

work in plain sight, yet how many people know how dangerous their work can be.

Hey, it's Curious City reporter Adriana Cardona McGigad. We've been getting lots of questions

about how these craft middle recyclers operate,

how much they make each day, and what it's like to be going through alleyways collecting metal

all day. I spent a few days talking with recyclers on the streets, and one of them let me ride

along for a full day to find out.

Francisco. His name is Francisco.

What are, what are...

More on that, coming up.

Nothing?

No, no, do you?

No, no, what?

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