NEW YORK, NY August 05, 2008 —Recycling in New York City has always taken two different paths: the official one, where the city picks up the metal cans, plastic bottles, glass containers and paper you've set on the curb...and the unofficial one, where fellow New Yorkers grab material before the sanitation truck rumbles by.

Well, that unofficial one has provided New York City's sanitation department with stiff competition of late, as the price of paper, and, especially, scrap metal has reached new highs.

WNYC All Things Considered host Amy Eddings has the details.