States, cities crack down on thefts of recyclables
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Residents in US towns have described that when they put out the garbage and recycling on the curb for pickup that strangers dig through their bins stealing trash they aim to turn into treasure.
Glass breaks, paper flies - the loot's gone hours before the waste company even arrives.
Those people are like an army out there, people report. They are in coming in trucks, work with cell phones. To them it is a business.
Obviously, recycling and the collection of recyclables is a business and while we cannot encourage the behavior described by some residents of those recyclers, those “thieves”, is it not the case that once anything is by the roadside it is public property?
I do a lot of “roadside shopping” as and when I can, but then my finds are used at home or are turned into resalable goods.
However, it would appear that taking and removing cans, bottles and other recyclables from bins is illegal in many places, including San Francisco and New York City.
America never ceases to amaze me in regards of such laws. Much like the fact that it is a felony in many areas to collect rainwater for use in one's garden and such.
With prices for aluminum, cardboard and newsprint going up and an economic slowdown putting added pressure on people's pocketbooks, curbside refuse has become a hot commodity.
A truck piled high with mixed recyclables can fetch upward of $1,000; newspapers alone can grab about $600.
The issue has caught the attention of state and local officials, who are seeking more stringent regulations to curb theft, saying lost revenue threatens the financial viability of their recycling programs.
Maybe if they actually would have a different system which would get people to bring the recyclables to a collection point where they actually would pay those people that recycle the trouble at the curbside would not happen.
But, as in so many places elsewhere, such big places seem to want money from things that they did not work for; the city authorities I am referring to here, not anyone else.
One cannot, obviously condone the theft of “fresh” newspapers, as apparently is happening with the free weekly “The East Bay Express”, which covers Oakland, Berkeley and other Bay Area cities, which are stolen directly from the rack by recyclers by the ton. This is, obvious theft and theft is wrong.
While still legal in some places – though to a great degree illegal, sort of, in the UK – I am sure that dumpster dicing will be made a felony as well, seeing that often they are full of metal, wood and all other useful items, and recyclables.
In Britain we are, like, so I understand, also in the USA and other places, we are seeing metals being stolen left, right and center, such as lead from church roofs, copper and lead pipes from public lavatories, and wires and cables from railroad projects and even live cables. The length that those metal thieves go are unbelievable but the prices are high and many of those that buy scrap metals are rouges themselves. If they were honest and the word would get around that no one is buying the material that appears to come from illegal sources then the thefts would go away, of that I am sure.
Food for thought...
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Roadside trash becomes loot for thieves
