Collecting Recyclables in NYC without permission...

just another way big brother tries to keep the little man down......To me if it hits the curb it's fair game.....the old adage "one man's trash is another man's treasure" has never rung so true

i started as a "small guy" ... the garbage industry in NYC is a much larger and complicated animal than the small towns and municipalities across the U.S. I've been a trash guy since I was 14... I've always lived by the old adage, "Nothing in life is free.." served me pretty well thus far.

Taking stuff off the street when it has been left for someone else is like taking a pie off of someones window sill... just because it is there and no one is looking... doesn't mean it is yours! Ask first!

State laws seem to rule but it has been excepted by the supreme court that it is legal
regardless I don't live near the 5 boroughs and wile i was a born and raised long islander I do scrap the Nassau county areas when i visit seems to not have issues but times are a changing - some day those rules will be here also Hmm can i be grand fathered in ? nope LOL

Originally Posted by technologyrecycling

i started as a "small guy" ... the garbage industry in NYC is a much larger and complicated animal than the small towns and municipalities across the U.S. I've been a trash guy since I was 14... I've always lived by the old adage, "Nothing in life is free.." served me pretty well thus far.

Taking stuff off the street when it has been left for someone else is like taking a pie off of someones window sill... just because it is there and no one is looking... doesn't mean it is yours! Ask first!

I thought I would give a rebuttle but now I have decided it is not worth my time..............In my opinion though the police should have much more important things to do than pulling someone over picking through trash.................Opereative word there "TRASH"

Not sure if the admin would allow it but how bout a poll........Is curbside trash pickin legal or illegal.....It seems the law is very vague

I agree i wasnt thinking i just get so frustrated with stuff like this if the larger trash companies want all the trash guarded provide some type of secure pickup

Jacking metal from boxes isn't nearly as costly to these companies as the cardboard theft... but, it is similar when I price out a demo/clean out job and my guys are inside filling containers and bringing them to the street and when they go inside to get the container someone steals my entire mini container filled with metal studs... that is a problem.. A lot of the scrap guys, demo companies and garbage companies started just like a lot of people here. Small..



http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/t...ZtvLtCq9vfak6K

NYC thieves now stealing cooking grease

City thieves are getting slipperier.

They’ve taken to ripping off the rancid cooking oil left at the curb by restaurants — as the list of strange “commodities” sought by sticky-fingered opportunists grows.

In a sputtering economy, the price of resale goods like cardboard, scrap metal, old appliances and even grease has spiked — and criminals have taken notice.

Used cooking oil cost next to nothing four years ago. Now it goes for 38 cents a pound. Cardboard and other paper goods went for about 1 cent a pound two years ago. Now it costs 6 cents.

“It’s really crazy out here with this grease,” said Eddie, a truck driver who picks up used oil in Brooklyn. “I went to one of my stops, and I actually saw a guy pumping grease out with a vacuum cleaner.”

Old refrigerators, washers and dryers might be more of a hassle to lift, but snatching them has also become increasingly common, according to Sanitation Department officials.

“When they stay out a day, people steal them,” said agency spokesman Vito Turso. And it’s illegal because, technically, the city owns recyclables once they’re put on the curb.

Cooking oil is typically left in drums or secure plastic containers outside restaurants, which are required by law to contract with a licensed carting company for disposal. The carter sells the grease to be recycled as biofuel, used in diesel engines.

As fuel prices surge, so do thefts by a new breed of oil-robber barons.

“We’ve experienced many break-ins since the first of the year,” said Edward Gunderson, president of M&E Soap, which picks up food oil in Brooklyn and Staten Island. “They can walk out with $200, $300 or $500 worth of material.”

Gunderson estimates he has lost 5 to 10 percent of his business in the past year because of theft.

Some of the thieves are rival companies, and others are random thieves.

“It’s an easy way to make a buck,” Gunderson said.

So are cardboard, copper piping, wire and other scrap metal.

Due to demand for paper in China, the price of used cardboard and paper has also ballooned. And with fewer Americans buying new appliances, the old ones are less likely to be tossed, kicking up demand.

Many people who steal cardboard are organized, according to Nick DiVittorio, who works for D&N Services, an Astoria, Queens-based carter.

“It’s worth money, and people are hurting, so they want to steal,” he said. “It’s between $1 million and $2 million a month that we’re losing.”

It’s also easier to justify stealing from a faceless company or city, as opposed to an individual, said John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor Maki Haberfeld.

And New York City is certainly feeling that.

“We lost $1.6 million last year because of theft of the paper products,” Turso said.

Manhole covers might be the toughest commodity to boost and resell.

Andrew Modica was charged last month with stealing 14 covers to fuel his drug habit.

Mike Powers, owner of TNT Scrap Metal in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said he would call the cops if someone tried to hawk him a sewer cap.

“We worked really hard to get a good business,” Powers said. “We’re not going to give that for a few dollars from stolen manhole covers.”

Desperate times

What thieves are stealing & resale price per pound

cooking grease 38 cents

manhole covers 15 cents

wrought-iron gates 12 cents

cardboard 6 cents

scrap metal (refrigerators, washers, dryers) 10 cents



Some guys are stealing manhole covers... Now that's ballsy!

That kind of theft hurts the curb hunter
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I know that by me and i actually have talked to a owner of a trash co. and he told me when trash is in the can it gets put in a land fill (upstate NY ) if by chance a AL pot is put in the yellow containers sure they will get recycled but so often they are not in the yellow container
I find more often the trash can has the bags and sitting neatly on top are pots pans electronics and such I feel many to most home owners know that the curb pickers will take it . I for one don't start opening bags at random , I take what can be seen , Sure a massive move out of a tenant has many things like clothes sundries so a peek here or there i go for it.I have been down this talk before . Lets look today first stop gas $10 morning pizza $2
Spent $12 on copper and short from a plumber in town .Lunch time another $10 gas and sub $ 4.95 ice cream $2 almost forgot a guy down on his luck needed a few bucks so i gave him $5 and a $2 beer he gave me fifty lb metal from his demo work . Don't forget I also went to the yard $80 dollar day yesterday was $115 and did spend $15 gas $4 food .
So because i scrap in 2 days i spent in the community $66.95 in 2 days and made $195
and still end up with a filled truck from the drive and sold off lots of low end stuff . I don't consider these the best pay day but at least my pockets are not empty . My fuel bill for the community is $7224 at least per year my on the run food bill per year $1080 $8304 per year at the peak i remember about 10 scrapers in the area $83, 040 from the scrapers who hit the road This says nothing of all the money we spend at wall mart and such $206 ,400 give or take for ten active scrapers $83, 040 + $206,400 = $ 289,440 per year
@ 5 years = $144,7200. Well it's easy to see how little we contribute to the economy , almost forgot less land fill pollution LIKE 5160000 lbs @ 10 scrapers in 5 years we are useless bunch of nose pickers thats us.
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Scrapers are an integral part of a true stimulus package for economic growth. Get rid of us and none of the town people really will see the money it will dissipate into the abyss

I watched an episode of "NYPD blue" or one of the other cop shows situated in NYC where they had trash cops. Not just trash cops they had undercover trash cops who "staked out" a couch that had been tossed out onto the sidewalk. When some scrappers or other hooligans attempted to remove the couch the "trash" cops swooped in and busted them. The point of the couch was a dead body was hidden in it.

On a more serious note the recycling programs fail to make money for any community they cost. The programs are the darling of politicans everywhere and a cash cow for those who are in bed with them.

I have read you posts and I see a re-occurring theme technogyrecycling: you want those opperating in NYC to registar and you started small. I have to say I wonder why you are pushing the NYC license to scrap? Mike.

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Not sure if the admin would allow it but how bout a poll........Is curbside trash pickin legal or illegal.....It seems the law is very vague

It's not up to a poll, the bottom line is whether or not it is LEGAL. The legalities of this vary, some places it's legal some places it's not.

In NYC as described the the OP of this thread, it seems to be ILLEGAL because the city assumes that they will in fact make a certain amount of profit from the recyclables put out on trash day. To put it bluntly, THEY'RE IMMEDIATELY TAKING OWNERSHIP OF RECYCLABLES PLACED CURBSIDE.

On another note there's two sides to the story. Some people might not want strangers picking through the garbage put outside their home for whatever reason, where others might look at it in a way they don't mind helping someone out, if you're going to make a few bucks all the power to you. But again, it's all an individual perspective, some towns allow it, some don't, some people don't mind, some people do.

The same goes with 'dumpster diving', some places it's ok, some places it's not. Some people WANT scrap in their own dumpster, whether it's mixed with trash or not because they know it's worth money and they're going to pick through THEIR OWN DUMPSTER later on. No matter what the situation is you should always be respectful, considerate and aware of the community you live in, its laws and its people.

Here, for example, 'dumpster diving' is legal SO LONG as the dumpster is an OPEN dumpster, it is not fenced in, posted as private property, or stated via a sign or otherwise that you should not go through the dumpster.

All I'm saying is, regardless of opinion, laws are laws, and privacy is privacy.

Originally Posted by miked

I watched an episode of "NYPD blue" or one of the other cop shows situated in NYC where they had trash cops. Not just trash cops they had undercover trash cops who "staked out" a couch that had been tossed out onto the sidewalk. When some scrappers or other hooligans attempted to remove the couch the "trash" cops swooped in and busted them. The point of the couch was a dead body was hidden in it.

On a more serious note the recycling programs fail to make money for any community they cost. The programs are the darling of politicans everywhere and a cash cow for those who are in bed with them.

I have read you posts and I see a re-occurring theme technogyrecycling: you want those opperating in NYC to registar and you started small. I have to say I wonder why you are pushing the NYC license to scrap? Mike.

Because I grew up amongst people who didn't like playing by the rules.. They always told me I would never succeed if I didn't do it the way they did it.. I always saw it as a quick buck. I work very hard. I pay my taxes. I donate and give time to charities.. I succeeded playing by the rules in spite of people all around me cutting corners and doing things that I disagree with..

I recently found a guy in NJ that is running an illegal E-waste dismantling facility. Roughly 80k sq ft. He's got day laborers working in horrendous conditions with no ventilation what-so-ever. No masks no gloves... They get a work bench and a stack of electronics and a couple bins to separate the material. I push for people to get licenses and register because it is the right thing to do.. Because it is the responsible thing to do. Making a quick buck at the expense of other peoples health and safety or the environment is not right nor responsible...