Recycling Man Starting Over : Homeless: No one asked Ron Swift to oversee a recycling site in West Hollywood. But he made friends there who went to bat for him when the city closed the center.

They started by recycling bottles and cans. They ended by recycling a life.

That’s the way hundreds of people in the West Hollywood area will remember the tiny aluminum and glass collection site that was shut down the other day in their neighborhood.

And that’s the way they hope to remember Ron Swift.

Swift was a 46-year-old homeless man who showed up daily at the city recycling center, tucked beneath a locust tree at the northwest corner of Plummer Park’s tennis court parking lot.

For 14 months, he kept the collection area clean and the bins organized--paper, plastics, glass and aluminum piled in proper containers. For 7 1/2 hours each day, he unloaded bags of cans and bottles and stacks of old newspapers from the hundred or so cars that pulled up.

In exchange for his help, residents in the neighborhood began giving Swift their bottles and cans for him to recycle personally. At the end of each day, Swift would pay a friend to drive him to a commercial recycling center in Hollywood to cash in his booty.

Swift’s personal service quickly caught on. Soon, people were driving from miles away to dispose of their cans and papers with him. His daily profit grew to where he could afford a $25-a-night motel room in Silver Lake and stop sleeping on the street. A few months ago, the recycling business reached the point where Swift even took on a helper: homeless man Dee Homedale, 47.

For the most part, officials from West Hollywood looked the other way. Occasionally, Swift would get a lecture from a city worker about the evils of appropriating recyclables from the city bins. Sometimes some of his bottles and cans were confiscated. But things were mostly peaceful under the locust tree--until two weeks ago.

That’s when city officials posted notices written in English, Spanish and Russian announcing that the collection site was closing. The announcement didn’t say why. And Swift’s customers were furious.

The bins were removed last Tuesday. And by the weekend as many as 450 people had signed petitions asking that the collection point--and Swift--remain in Plummer Park. Another 300 or so telephoned West Hollywood City Hall to voice their unhappiness.

“This is Ron’s livelihood,” said Barbara Pallenberg, an art appraiser who traveled weekly from Laurel Canyon to give her recyclables to Swift. “He’s extremely bright and personable, a nice person. This isn’t right.”

West Hollywood resident Ben Schwartz, a retired garment worker, suspected the worst. He had seen a city worker confronting Swift the week before, he said, “chewing him out right and left.”

“They should have been tickled pink to have him here. People came here to recycle because of him,” Schwartz said.

Others who stopped to say goodby after the bins were removed were more succinct.

“It’s ridiculous,” grumbled retiree Max Jacobs, who brought dinner rolls for Swift to snack on. “Terrible,” said 89-year-old Albert Solomon, who pressed a few coins in Swift’s hand “to buy you a cup of coffee.” Said Eve Kaiser, 74, giving Swift a hug: “What the city’s doing, if you’ll excuse the expression, stinks.”

The surprise outpouring sent officials scrambling.

They began contacting petition-signers to assure them that the closure had nothing to do with Swift. The Plummer Park collection site was no longer needed because West Hollywood has a new citywide curbside recycling program, they told the homeless man’s friends.

Also, officials said, the site had become a liability because outsiders were dumping trash and things such as old motor oil in the bins at night and contaminating the recyclables. The city was losing $5,000 a year on the site, primarily because of trash disposal costs.

City Hall workers also began scurrying to find Swift a job.

“Hopefully, we’re all working for the same thing,” said City Clerk Mary Tyson--who saved her own bottles and cans for Swift .

“We in the community feel like we’ve helped get him off the street and we want him to stay off.”

Officials said budget problems prevent them from putting Swift on the city payroll. But by Friday they had tentatively lined up a job for him with one of the private contractors that helps run West Hollywood’s recycling program. Swift was scheduled to meet with the contractor today.

“Essentially, people felt they were saving a life through their trash,” said David Hare, manager of the city’s Environmental Services Division .

Although other cities have passed laws prohibiting scavengers from interfering with their recycling programs, West Hollywood has a more tolerant view.

“These people could be out panhandling or stealing, but they’re not,” Hare said. “They’ve developed a trade--they’re urban miners.”

Back under the locust tree, Swift was surprised by the turn of events.

He had been a teacher-trainee at several Los Angeles Unified School District special education campuses in the 1970s before he opened his own limousine and delivery business. But a short-lived drug habit led to the collapse of that business in the mid-1980s, he said. After that, he worked as a janitor in downtown Los Angeles before his employer went out of business.

He slept under a blanket on the streets for about a year and a half before pushing his cart down Fountain Avenue, past Plummer Park, last year, he said.

“I’ve had very low self-esteem,” Swift said. “I’m concerned about the way I look . . . about the dental work I need. I’m missing some teeth and others I could pull out with my fingers. My teeth have kept me from getting some jobs. I want a steady employment, with benefits.

“I hate to leave the friends I’ve made here. But I want a job.”