Recycling thieves create quite a mess
By: Tamara Barak Aparton
Examiner Staff Writer
April 14, 2009
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| An unidentified woman picks up recycled items that she collected from this recycling can in San Francisco. (AP file photo) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Recycling poachers are forsaking cardboard in favor of bottles and cans — sending noise and litter complaints through the roof.
The economy is to blame for the shift, said Sunset Scavenger spokesman Robert Reed. Poachers who were used to netting $100 per ton for cardboard found the value had dropped to $30 per ton in October. Meanwhile, the value of bottles — a nickel or a dime apiece — remained steady.
“The professional poachers taking cardboard outside of restaurants and retail stores stopped doing that and they targeted the bottles and cans more intensely,” Reed said. “They shifted their focus onto residential areas and it’s reflected in the increase of noise, litter and trespassing complaints.”
Sunset Scavenger late last year enabled its subscribers to report thefts on its Web site, www.sfrecycling.com. The complaints are then forwarded to the Police Department.
The Web site also allows police to pinpoint poaching hot spots, police Sgt. Wilfred Williams said. Because the poaching crews work in the middle of the night, most complaints are from neighbors losing sleep.
In an e-mail to Mission district residents, Mission Police Station Capt. Stephen Tacchini said officers are renewing their focus on the “significant and costly problem,” and encouraged neighbors to lodge their complaints online with Sunset Scavenger.
“The dumping of the recycle bins by unauthorized persons is evident by the debris, broken glass, liquid and papers they leave on the street, creating a public-safety hazard and exacerbated litter problem that results in the Department of Public Works having to come out to clean up the mess, at a cost borne by taxpayers,” he wrote.
The scavenging by organized groups employing fleets of up to a dozen pickup trucks and vans has risen sharply in the past few years, according to police and recycling officials. The illegal gathering has been estimated to collect between $2 million and
$5 million worth of recyclables a year.
To address the problem, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in 2008 sponsored by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, to crack down on recycling poachers. The bill mandates recycling centers and scrap dealers require identification from anyone looking to cash in on more than $50 worth of newspapers or $100 worth of bottles and cans.
Ma previously told The Examiner that recycling theft was an issue that went back to her time as a San Francisco supervisor.
“The people rummaging through recycling bins are a nuisance, leave debris and create a general sense of unease, because a lot of times there is a criminal element to the operation,” she said.
Last month, a San Francisco judge also issued a temporary injunction against a dozen of The City’s biggest looters, banning them from stealing from curbside bins.
“We’re not concerned about a little lady taking a few cans. The concern is about professional poachers who operate illegal fleets and underground businesses,” Reed said.
