At 12 years old, Devon Osterhout is not old enough to drive a car, drink alcohol, or vote in presidential elections. He enjoys reading books and playing soccer, basketball, and baseball, like other kids his age. Unlike many 12-year-olds, however, Osterhout owns his own recycling business.
For the last eight months Osterhout has visited RPI fraternities and local businesses such as Strawberry Ridge, B & W Steel, Goodyear Tires, and Birch Bottles three days a week to collect recyclables. After gathering cans, Osterhout spends two to three hours crushing them in a machine for the $.05 per can recycled. He also maintains a complete, accurate record of the total pounds recycled from each organization for their recycling statistics.
Between his studies, athletics, and the recycling business Osterhout doesn’t have much time for anything else. The whole recycling process “takes a lot of time. People don’t realize how much time he puts into it,” said his mother Aloma.
Osterhout has already earned $2,570 so far from recycling more than 50,000 cans. The money he raises from the business is helping to pay his tuition at the LaSalle School, a private boys school in Troy. Osterhout starts his first year at LaSalle as a seventh grader this week.
Because more than 80 percent of Osterhout’s recycling businesses comes from the Rensselaer fraternities he has become good friends with many of the fraternity brothers and is grateful for their kindness and generosity.
“They’re all really great. They let me in [to] do what I have to do,” said Osterhout. Alpha Phi Alpha even let him participate in their Sleepout for Homeless last year. “They make him feel welcome ... They take the time to answer the door,” said his mother Aloma. “The guy who answers the door is doing something.”
The advantage of collecting recyclables over working at a standard teenage job like McDonald’s is that it lets Osterhout have more flexible hours and a variable work schedule.
When he became sick with the chicken pox last year, for instance, it didn’t affect his relationship with the businesses and fraternities. “He can work the hours. The guys at the fraternities don’t care [about what time] when he comes ... There’s a lot of flexibility,” said Aloma.
She believes that her son will “ become a better person” from the experience by understanding the utility of hard work, the value of recycling, and most importantly how to empathize with other merchants going door to door.
