This is an idea I've had for a long time, but my time is very limited so I've never had a chance to try and make it.
In both FO3 and NV, you see scavengers (or "prospectors" if you're fancy) everywhere scrounging for goods. In NVs Novac, scaving seems to be the entire towns sole occupation and purpose, since that's why you get sent up to REPCONN to deal with the ghouls. And then, back in DC, there's Three Dog's comments about "scaving the ruins". Yet despite all this, there is still scrap everywhere and not much to do with it. And then, from a technical standpoint, all that clutter can slow down your machine (especially if you use texture replacers). And some of the clutter is used for various purposes like recipes and whatnot, so doing a plain old cleanup mod would make it hard to craft stuff.
My solution? Recycling centers. In some central location for each wasteland, or multiple locations near major population centers, set up small merchants that deal solely in scrap materials. You can take them random stuff like tin cans and empty bottles and whatnot, and they turn it into scrap metal, scrap electronics, and other things. Then you can do an area cleanup for places you'd expect to be clean such as towns and military bases and places you'd expect to have been picked clean by scavengers, yet the materials would still be available in a central location for players who like to craft stuff or need parts for things.
