Hazel Park (MI) bans scavenging of residents’ recyclables

Hazel Park bans scavenging of residents’ recyclables


HAZEL PARK — The city has a new law making it a crime for scavengers to take any of the recyclable items in bins that residents put at the curb each week on trash day.

“Scavengers have been stealing recyclables and taking them for their scrap value,” said City Manager Ed Klobucher. “When they steal these items they are depriving the city of revenue it is rightly entitled to.”

The new Hazel Park ordinance makes it a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine, to take recyclable items.

The city law goes into effect within two weeks. The City Council recently enacted the anti-scavenger measure because more people have been stealing items from residents’ recycling bins, Klobucher said.

http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2011/11/24/news/doc4eceee51f3c8e217133863.txt

This is saying that once you put your recycling out, it is the property of the city and scrounging means you are stealing from the city.

I wonder what residents think.

unless the materials are actually in the city-provided recycling bins, they would not be subject to this law. Anyone?

I understand that the cash gained from the recycling is applied to the revenues taken in and goes towards the "regular" trash pick-up.

the city charges residents to pick up the recyclables. At least my city does.

Typically, cities don't quite break even on balance. If scavengers take the "valuable" recyclables, taxpayers will need to pay more for the unprofitable items.

... the residents are sick of cleaning up the mess the scrappers leave. The scrappers, it seems, don't neatly pick through bins looking for specific materials ... they tend to dump the bins, grab what they want and move on. I'd be pissed if I came out to my car in the morning and found trash strewn around.

costs and keep the trash pickup system more affordable (lower taxes in some places, lower fees for contractors in others.)

They must have considerable expenses running the program. I doubt this is profit we are talking about here, but minimizing losses.

so the aluminum often helps pay for recycling programs that take in many, varied types of products instead of sending it to the landfill.

i have a friend who is a trash collector in SF and he says that the people who rummage through the recycling bins often throw what they don't want right into the landfill container and often the batteries left on top of the containers (the proper procedure) are thrown into the containers by people who rummage.

it's not the crime of the century and if people are doing it out of desperation, i have some sympathy, but it messes up the recycling effort and to some extent it may be organized and not a move of desperation in many places --just a way for someone to make money.

They set up their own recycling bins to reduce landfill waste, but found that the aluminum cans, which were supposed to pay for the program, were being taken by scavengers.

Actually, I live next door to a scavenger. She goes out each morning and takes the cans from all the government recycling bins and spends her evenings pounding them flat with a monster sledge hammer. She's not poor. She lives in a US$300,00 apartment and rents out another house she owns. So it must be a worthwhile effort for her.

wow ! any pix ?

force (unlike older-generation soft drink cans).

I also can't see how it would be worth someone's time to collect from around town and flatten them unless they needed the money. Two big garbage bags of flattened cans gets me somewhere between $5 and $10 (price at the recycling center varies everytime I go, depends on world metal prices. Most recent trip it was down.)

She has to take a ferry each day to take them to the recycling center, so I think she needs to get as many as she can in two bags so as not to be charged extra by the ferry company.

I don't know what the rate is here. I would have thought it wouldn't be enough to cover the ferry trip, but she spends hours a day at it so it must be worth it.

http://www.harborfreight.com/multi-load-can-crusher-95678.html

This is a can crusher that holds six cans at once. You can squish cans flatter and faster with this thing than you ever could with a sledgehammer. All she needs do is recruit one of her kids to feed the thing, and she's golden.

It will save her hours of labor each week, and give us and our other neighbors some peace and quiet in the evening. And she is not a young woman by any means. I really feel bad for her, pounding away with that huge mallet for at least an hour every evening.

Thanks very much.

Her nickname was John Henry...:toast: Thanks..

closer to warm weather.

















closer to warm weather.

Sorry, but that is something I can only vehemently disagree with. The city is not entitled to anybody else's money, and in making that claim they sound like crooks.

if i leave a box for you and someone else steals it, that's stealing.

saying "free." Stuff like small appliances, boxes of toys and games, furniture that is usable and can be refinished. Folks could put some of their recyclables in a box (not the city's bin) and put a sign on it. That way, they give the scavengers first shot at getting the stuff. If it doesn't get picked up after a while, they can put it in the recyclable bin that the city provides.

Actually, I can see the city's objection but the real problem is poor people. That is a moral problem of our society as a whole and one that the entire society should be concerned with!

The houses of worship should get involved with this!!!

the homeless and mentally ill in my neighborhood. The city can suck it.

... these scrappers (in addition to stealing from the community as a whole) are also creating a mess. Reportedly they are dumping the recycle bins, taking what they desire and leaving the residents or sanitation workers to clean up their mess.

I have no desire to have litter scattered all over my neighborhood, nor do I have the desire to clean up litter on my way out the door to go to work. i understand the city's and residents complaints completely.

Dumping peoples garbage in the alleyways and even sometimes setting it on fire.

house.

One time i had to get rid of the rotten old fence that came with my house. i did a little experiment. there was a small metal rod attached to the fence, what it was for, i don't know. about 2 feet long, the width of a dime.

i had to pile all the old fence pieces at the curb for pickup. i put the little piece of metal on the ground, and neatly stacked all the wood on top of it. I wanted to see if the scrappers would get it. sure enough, next morning... the wood pile was strewn and the piece of metal gone...

on the one hand i could care less if it's trash, but if you're going to pick through people's garbage, don't leave a fucking mess to clean up.

but stealing the downspouts was just low.

I live in a six unit vintage condo bldg. so it's quite possible it started to fall off and someone removed it all the way.....

Not likely. I think it got nicked. Off to send that email I keep forgetting to send.

a resident put out for people to take for free. Often we see a sofa or some other piece of furniture setting beside the road for free. That should not be stopped. But we pay to have other items picked up as recycling because it helps support the people who pick it up.

from carbonated beverages (soda, beer, etc). Plastic, glass and aluminum.

For the last many years I put mine in one paper bag in the top of the cart for the folks who come around and 'scavenge' because I am too lazy to take them back to the store and they can make a couple bucks off of what I am putting out there.

This is really sad. I don't live in that town but I hope this type of rule doesn't spread.

This is more about the 10 cent deposit than the fractions of pennies the city is making from scrapping them. It's not like the city is sorting them out and returning them

It's a crime to be poor.

Even labeling it "stealing" is an offensive form of bias in the OP.

Any sensible person tries to reuse stuff in every way possible before resorting to commercial recycling services. OF COURSE if someone else wants it, they can have it, especially if it's a better deal for me.

That's why my town has a tradition of "free boxes" out at the curb, separate from garbage or recycling. Put it out for free, and only if no one wants it does it need to be disposed of.

Stupid, stupid attack on the poor, apparently for no purpose but the pleasure in harming others.

So, yes, I resent people stealing from my recycle bin. Back when we had to separate cans/bottles/paper occasionally they'd take the containers along with the aluminum; we haven't had too many issues since the city went to single stream recycling and in the processed increased the number to items they'll take - apparently it's too much trouble to go through a large bin of newspapers/junk mail/non-AL cans/bottles/plastics/metals/cardboard to get to the small percentage of valuables.