I PICK UP PROFITS WITH A PICKUP

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. Instead, I took it to the backyard of my house where I sorted it into three piles: firewood, usable material, and waste, The last category included unrecyclable paper, paint cans, torn shingles in short, anything that wouldn't burn and couldn't be reused. Unloading the pickup by hand, I soon discovered, was a waste of valuable time so I built a sturdy skid from salvaged 5/8-inch plywood cut slightly smaller than the inside dimensions of the truck bed. Two 2 X 4's were nailed lengthwise to the bottom of the device and the front end was reinforced with angle iron.

A sturdy eyebolt inserted through the metal strip, a tree stump, and a length of chain completed the project If I hooked the bolt to the stump with the chain and drove forward until the plywood panel tilted out the back of the bed, I could tip the mass of rubbish out and empty an entire truckload in a few minutes. Then I'd replace the skid and be all set for another trip.

Next I put some ads in the paper and had business cards printed up for distribution to contractors' offices and building sites. Within a couple of weeks I had more work than I could handle alone, so a couple of friends got involved on an equal shares basis. Two of us would hit the construction sites while the third stayed home to sort the booty. At the height of the building season we averaged 20 to 25 loads a week.

The "trash" we gathered from the sites included large amounts of reusable lumber and many unexpected bonuses: nails of every size and type, for example, paint, copper tubing, and sheet and scrap metal. (One generous contractor saw me picking up nails-which we could sell for 504 a pound-and assured me that I needn't do that thorough a job!) Metal waste was sold to a junkyard and paper donated to a recycling drive.

Some of the trash we picked up at the sites, of course, was no use at all but we discovered that for every ten loads we brought home, we took less than one to the dump! The other nine loads-of good, salvaged building materials--didn't remain idle for long. As soon as we had a selection of lumber, siding, shingles, nails, paint, and paneling, we put ads in the local paper and left notices on community bulletin boards in supermarkets, barber shops, and discount stores.

Handymen, housewives, and others doing small home repairs found our prices much lower than those of the lumberyards. Our best customer was a retired mailman down the street who supplemented his pension by building doghouses. The short boards and odd pieces of paneling were scaled just right for his work, and he turned out some very fancy models.

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