Curb Shopping Causing Towns To Loose Money?

looking through google just looking at scrap metal articles when i came across an oddly titled article titled as, "Towns losing money to illegal scavengers of valuable recyclables." First off, how can an entire town loose money to throwing out personal, private items? Second, illegal scavengers, wtf? I understand there are some laws with curb shopping, but reading this article makes me mad just reading it. Then they discuss actual illegal scrapping, like people breaking in to places causing damages. That i am ok with letting the public know that. But when they get mad at curb shoppers, it ticks me off. Please tell me about your oppinion, cause i think its ridiculous ( the curb shopping part)

Article: Towns losing money to illegal scavengers of valuable recyclables - News - NorthJersey.com

Don't know about that locality, but here the county has a law on the books that makes it against the law for anyone to remove any items left at the curb for trash pickup except for the home owner. So that means curb shopping is actually illegal here and is considered scavenging.

Many towns make curb shopping illegal. The town sells to the scrap yard and is loosing revenue.

I have said this about you tube videos that practice this and gloat. Without permission it's stealing. The town city district or other scraps also . It's like taking from the dump. lol free pickings .Now those that lurk near the dump and take or buy the metal/ electronic scrap before it enters the property from the resident or haulers well that's just hungry but legal. A sweet deal if you do it. Though it may be borderline activity. Imho . Curb shoppers need prior permission. Maybe agreement. Ijs

You need to read the town/state/county regulations/laws regarding who owns the "trash". And the legality of taking this "trash". E.g., in my locale, it is illegal to take items from the blue Recycle Barrels provided by the City. And dumpster diving is generally not legal.

I'm going to try to tread lightly here on this topic. First I really don't like anybody going through my personal trash. As my GF puts it, There's things in there that I don't think is anyone's business (I agree with her on that). If I think I no longer have use for a item and someone else may, I set it on the curb (not in can). I actually want a curb shopper to get those items (not trash company). Now for the city and the trash company, F them! There in bed together, I have lived in the same city for twenty five years, my trash fee is $21.47 every month. Now round that to $20 even and multiply it by 10k and that's $200,000 a month. Now I'm being really conservative, there's way more than 10,000 homes. It really don't matter that's not where trash company makes there money, the big haul is the commercial trash. Now the trash company will typically kick back to the city 10 to 15% for the exclusive rights for that commercial trash ($300,000 to $500,000) per year. So what's the trash company's making on the commercial trash (not hard to figure out). Now do they recycle, very little, just enough to make it look good. Why would they want to, they like trash, they charge commercial by weight!, by trip and by the tip. Twenty five years we have the same company and almost the exact same city council. Now who do you think is donating the maximum amount to each council member year after year?

Unfortunately it is illegal around me. The municipalities have tied it all up in RED TAPE by saying first, once it at the curb it is "town property" and second they have a huge list of what people can put in their trash, when they can put it out, and how much they can put out. They actually charge people $20 to get into the local facility to dump their appliances, tvs, etc. It's a total cash grab.

Fortunately, its a municipal bylaw, so the cops couldn't care less and it falls on a municipal officer to catch people curb shopping.

But I think your right, benny, we scrappers make sure not only everything gets recycled better than the towns, we will also re-purpose something or sell it while the town tosses working and non-working items into the trash.

This article made me so angry that if I wasn't sitting in studyhall I would throw a chair. I hate how they compare us people who steal it. But I also have a question, if we ask the homeowner if we can have what they put out on the curb would it still be city property and considered stealing?

legally the curb area( area between side walk and street) is city controlled property, called easement) generally it is 120 feet from the middle of the street to either side of said street.

That said welcome to the new Amerika where government and the bigs are sleeping together. just my .02.

It's a "grey" area if on the curb, going to be hard for a court to get a conviction. Now if it's in the can, you have a good chance of being in violation of a city code. City code violation and state law are two different things. My problem with city code, is special interest group had that code put on the books (trash company). I should also clarify, not every city/municipality is served by these large trash corporations I'm talking about. Some of you have good reputable and companies doing a good job. I'm talking about very large, crooked and outright scandalous mega corporations getting rich running corrupt companies (they do exist).

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Originally Posted by olddude

legally the curb area( area between side walk and street) is city controlled property, called easement) generally it is 120 feet from the middle of the street to either side of said street.
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15 ft from the center here, and not an inch more;)
i can lease them all they want after that.

"Live Free or Die"

WASTE MAFIA CHARGED IN NEW YORK
17 January 2013 According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the main Indictment charges 12 defendants under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for conspiring to participate in a racketeering enterprise that asserted illegal and extortionate control over commercial waste hauling companies.
This is a excerpt from article I found In Waste Management World (a trade magazine)

In my area, an in others I scrap at times, the laws are simple..if in a can, don't touch it. Outside of the can, it's fair game. Recycle totes from the county/whoever are also off limits. Anything tossed on the curb on it's own, whether in a bag, or not is fair game.

Just like dumpster diving. Here it's legal if it's not fenced off, or lacking trespassing signs, etc.

Not all areas are the same, for good or bad. I could see a town/county getting pissed if someone was coming along an pulling from residents trash cans, or out of the recycle bins. Those are all big no no's for my area. Again tho..if sitting freely on the curb outside of a can or bin, it's fair game.

Sirscrapalot - YMMV

Sec. 15-10.3. Scavenging prohibited.
No person shall scavenge or otherwise disturb solid waste placed out for collection by a collection agency. Once placed out for collection solid waste becomes the property of the collection agency.
(Ord. No. 10539, § 4, 6-3-08, eff. 7-1-08)

City of Tucson

We pay $17.06 a month for once a week garbage collection, recycling collection and twice a year bulky brush item pick up. During these bulk and brush pick ups

http://www.tucsonaz.gov/sites/defaul...bb_english.pdf

People are everywhere collecting everything and no one seems to care. As for the city they have a 7 or 8 man crew they bring Tractor, bobcat hauled on flat bed trailers. Separate drivers for each, Garbage truck with 2 guys and then a truck that comes latter to get the tires. And then a street sweeper comes to clean up.

So it seems like as you can only place item out two weeks before the clean up so it should only be illegal to remove items during the two weeks prior and during the clean up week! Any other time someone puts something out no problem. Actually they would be violating the law for not having the item in there trash can.

Nothing on the books around here yet. Recycle bins are off limits...but anything left out of the bins will get taken for trash.

Recycle truck won't touch it. I've been right behind them with the trash truck on the next street.

Nothing like a morning game of beat the trash truck. Neither one will touch a microwave though...which is fine by me.

Hey HOBO, re-read that, it states put out for collection BY a collection agency, it literally means dumpster diving NOT curbside. I'm not a lawyer but there is a reason the law MUST either be broad so as to cover all possibilities or concise to eliminate particulars. Seems this is elimination of a particular activity. There's some much needed clarification because last time I checked most homeowners aren't employed by the collection agency at the time they set out their trash.

Well, I think they use the collected ferrous/non ferrous to help offset costs of running the transfer stations where they separate everything.

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Originally Posted by TheKid

This article made me so angry that if I wasn't sitting in studyhall I would throw a chair. I hate how they compare us people who steal it. But I also have a question, if we ask the homeowner if we can have what they put out on the curb would it still be city property and considered stealing?

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No. One time a city over from me , the guy came down the drive and said here, let me put this in your truck. The police frown on people taking things if the actual home owner doesn't give it to you directly. Its the homeowners to do with whatever they want. If they let someone take it after they put it out there is nothing anyone can say. It still belongs to the homeowner until the trash truck picks it up.

Curb shopping is not legal here, one of the reasons was that the bone headed scavengers from the past would pull ITEAMS out of the trash can and not pick up what trash fell on the ground leaving behind the mess, a little Tibet about trash company's fees most garbage contracts are biased upon the residents having a low rate for trash disposal while charging the commercial business a higher rate, they are Lucky if the brake even on the residential trash.I personally believe that curb shopping is a waste of time, once in a while you get lucky but most of the time after fuel food and time it's a loser, I would concentrate on building up some commercial accounts that produce scrap on a regular basis.