Tough Times Call For Stealing Recyclables

Curbside Recycling Means Money And Business For Those Willing To Sift Through The Trash

(AP)  Every Wednesday night, Bruce Johnson dutifully puts his garbage and recycling on the curb for pickup, and every week he fumes as small trucks idle in front of his home and strangers dig through his bins stealing trash they aim to turn into treasure.

Glass breaks, paper flies - the loot's gone hours before the waste company even arrives.

"They're like an army out there," said Johnson. "They're in trucks. They're on cell phones. It's a business."

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.

"These guys are becoming much more organized and much more prevalent," said Robert Reed, a spokesman for Norcal Waste Systems Inc., a garbage and recycling company in San Francisco and other cities throughout Northern California. "This has nothing to do with the lone homeless man picking up cans. We're seeing organized fleets of professional poachers with trucks."

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.

Pilfering cans, bottles and other recyclables from bins is already illegal in many places, including San Francisco and New York City.

In San Francisco, poachers can be fined up to $500 and get six months jail time. In New York, thieves are subject to arrest, vehicle impoundment and fines of up to $5,000.

California lawmakers are also considering legislation that would make large-scale, anonymous recycling more difficult by forcing scrap and paper recyclers to require picture identification for anyone bringing in more than $50 worth of cans, bottles or newspapers and to pay such individuals with checks rather than cash.

In Westchester County, New York, a proposal would make large-scale curbside recycling theft punishable by time behind bars and fines of up to $2,000.

Companies are also taking measures of their own.

Norcal Waste contracted private investigators and installed surveillance cameras at San Francisco spots frequented by poachers. The investigators compiled dozens of photographs of old pickup trucks covered by spray-painted graffiti and piled high with recyclables allegedly stolen from residents.

The free weekly The East Bay Express, which covers Oakland, Berkeley and other Bay Area cities, hired an ex-police detective to stake out thieves and began retrofitting curbside newspaper racks to make them theft-resistant because thousands of fresh copies go missing some weeks.

"We don't want to be spending all our energy printing papers that people take directly to the recyclers," said Hal Brody, the paper's president.

Mike Costello, vice president of circulation at the free San Francisco daily, The Examiner, has taken to doing stakeouts of his own.

In April, Costello followed a man driving around the city, emptying newspaper racks and loading the stolen papers into a van. He eventually pulled up alongside him, and told him, "'Stay where you are. You're in big trouble,"' Costello recalled.

Costello called police and the man unloaded his spoils - thousands of copies of more than 15 publications, including multiple newspapers and piles of free San Francisco tourist maps and brochures.

NorCal Waste Systems estimates that in 2007, more than $469,000 in recyclables were stolen by hundreds of trucks. Officials from the City of Concord, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of San Francisco, figure they're out $40,000 a year, while the city of Berkeley values the loss upward of $50,000 annually.

In the last five years, aluminum prices on the London Metal Exchange have climbed from around 65 cents a pound in 2003 to a record high of $1.50 a pound in July. Recycled paper and cardboard prices have also spiked, driven in large part by a burgeoning recycled paper export market.

"Newsprint is a hot grade," said Mark Arzoumanian, editor in chief of Official Board Markets, a publication covering the paper industry. "There is a voracious demand in China and India for recycled paper."

By cargo container load, the United States exports more waste paper than any other product. Last year, 20 million tons of recycled paper were shipped from U.S. ports. Approximately 75 percent of that paper goes to China, where it is reprocessed into shoe boxes, newspapers, cereal boxes, and the assortment of cardboard packages encasing all the consumer products China manufactures.

"China just doesn't have a heck of a lot of trees to make paper with," said Arzoumanian.

[patriot12436]

I think the argument the city will use to make a case is that once a citizen puts it in a city container, it is then the property of the city. They keep their trash collectioin bills high and make money on the recycclable items as well. City seems to have made quite a racket for themselves.

[whiskyrocker]

People better start putting locks on there gas tanks.

[toldyouso12]

Why can''''t people just use less containers? I use all cloth bags for everything and it''''s much easier to have strong, sturdy bags. If they insist on recycling, then give a tax break to those who do. Wanns bet your recycling numbers will triple, if not more? Local governments really just don''''t have a clue (neither do the state and federal ones either but that''''s another topic)

Posted by YBotherAtAll at 03:27 PM : Jul 08, 2008


Are your canned goods stored in bags and not cans? Do you not throw away garden refuse, lawn clippings and tree limbs? Do you use any bottled water or other containers? do you throw away any metal or glass containers--it is a lot more than your shopping bag---a helluva lot more.

[toldyouso12]

Times are challenging everywhere in this country, but real jobs are not impossible to find. My message to the poachers, is simple: Get a job!!!

Posted by tireslinger at 11:26 AM : Jul 08, 2008


to make what? Do you make 1000.00 per truck load at your job? Which could translate into 3 or 4000.00 per day? LOL. All I can say, is that the stuff was being thrown away in the first place, that the "thieves" should be more tidy and it beats them trying to sell drugs instead. NorCal is just jealous--they want all that revenue to themselves. Be they don''t compensate their customers for all the recyclables with lower trash bills.

[toldyouso12]

"Norcal Waste contracted private investigators and installed surveillance cameras at San Francisco spots frequented by poachers. The investigators compiled dozens of photographs of old pickup trucks covered by spray-painted graffiti and piled high with recyclables allegedly stolen from residents."

This is sad..but the real truth is--if residents are throwing this stuff away--the minute they put it in the trash, it no longer belongs to them. People can''t be accused of "stealing" what others are giving away in the first place.

Maybe Norcal can say it is stealing from them--but if they aren''t lowering the bills of those who recycle--maybe they should be accused of stealing too. Let all the home owners take their recyclables to a huge landfill and dump them. Then all the recyclable thieves can all run down in the pits and just duke it out for all the "treasure".

[jd2408]

So our big export product is garbage ! Many of us were wondering what the number one export was for the US. Wonder how many jobs garbage exporting adds to the economy.

[gregory70-2009]

This Article is just a big version of this one written months ago on the Bob Vila website.

http://www.bobvila.com/OnTheLevel/Is-It-Stealing--3267.html

[mollydtt]

Actually, if you live in a "Pay-as-you-throw" city, you pay more for a larger trash container collection than you do for a smaller one. It encourages buying with less packaging and sorting recycling materials together (collected free)and yardwaste (also collected free).
Landfills are not cheap, and if you put out more trash than your city-issued trash can can hold, you get a surcharge for the extra trash that week.

[gangesdak]

City and county were getting free recyclables. Now they have to compete with free marketeers. I remember when I was in Central (New) Jersey a few years ago, we had to wait for so many days before we could put our recyclables at a particular spot, just to satisfy the city. Now the city has to compete. Can''t say I feel sorry for the city.

[mollydtt]

Austin has had a comprehensive curbside recycling program for quite a while. I''m sure that the city receives payment for the recyclable materials, which helps defray the costs for trash pick up, but alas, the scavengers are out at 7 a.m. to cull through whatever material du jour they are selling. I''ve done my fair share of saving aluminum or tin to donate for fundraisers, but I resent forced "giving" recyclables to strangers. Some of them take it up a notch to stealing copper from outside air conditioner compressors, or remodeling projects. You never know what else they want to sell.

[ybotheratall]

I''ve read in several publications (like National Geographic for one) that recycling can cost more than the good it does. The carbon imprint from all those trash trucks and factories processing the recycled materials does more harm than good.

Why can''t people just use less containers? I use all cloth bags for everything and it''s much easier to have strong, sturdy bags. If they insist on recycling, then give a tax break to those who do. Wanns bet your recycling numbers will triple, if not more? Local governments really just don''t have a clue (neither do the state and federal ones either but that''s another topic)

[shoppingnut-2009]

If anyone wants my plastic and newspapers or any other stuff I put to the curb, they are welcome to it. I''m sick of the government regulating everything. And, some people do this to supplement their retirement income because they can''t live on social security alone.

[bill517]

Classic case of the gov''t interfering in a private market. Why should I give away my stuff to the gov''t when I could be selling it to a hustler?

[bill517]

Classic case of the gov''t interfering in a private market. Why should I give away my stuff to the gov''t when I could be selling it?

[bubbabear200]

I can just see it next year.
Be on the look out for 3 fully loaded garbage trucks stolen last night while the city workers were taking their 3 hour dinner break.
We will be giving a reward for the garbage returned
TEEHEE,TEEHEE

[kemetorigin]

This exposes a big racket. Cities and municipalities PAY companies to haul the recyclables away, out of their landfills and garbage dumps. And then these companies turn around and SELL this recyclable trash for hard cash! Talk about double dipping.

Posted by yongamerica at 01:19 PM : Jul 08, 2008

Actually, in Memphis, the companies pay the city for the recyclable items. It subsidizes trash collection to the point that tax payers don''t pay for it (directly at least). I wish Atlanta metro did the same.

[naucoming4u]

If you think these people are a small and desperate lot, then y''all haven''t seen anything yet!

This time next year, perhaps some on this board may consider collecting cans from others, just to fill up the gas tank once every couple months (or more).

And finally.... what the hell makes people so bent on other people collecting cans and recyclables out of one''s garbage?! If the purpose is for recycling, then more power to them!

It would be different if people started stealing the stash of recyclables that other''s meant for the purpose of collecting cash. But again... it will come to that in this country... soon...

...very soon.

[yongamerica]

This exposes a big racket. Cities and municipalities PAY companies to haul the recyclables away, out of their landfills and garbage dumps. And then these companies turn around and SELL this recyclable trash for hard cash! Talk about double dipping.

[drputt45]

Can recycle thiefs get healthcare? If so, where do I apply?

[cbsfan73]

It is felony theft of government property.