Our GM and I were discussing scrap laws this morning, and we got on the topic of one specific law put upon the scrap yards indicating that we're not allowed to purchase scrap from any person who has previously been convicted of scrap metal theft. Which seems TOTALLY logical, and a decent rule at a glance.



However - they don't provide any sort of system or anything to keep the yards informed of WHO'S being convicted of scrap metal theft! It causes us to have a little disclaimer on receipts saying the person is proclaiming they've never been convicted of scrap metal theft, which they sign...thereby putting the responsibility onto the customer. Now if a person is criminal enough to go and STEAL items to bring in and scrap, I'm going to guess 100 times out of 100 they're going to be dishonest enough to be willing to falsely sign off on that statement.

Just another example of laws sounding all good and well up at the legislative level in response to bad news articles and press, but in practicality and application - they fall short. It seems with a lot of law changes and "action" towards combating scrap thefts, they try to make the recyclers the villains rather than making them allies to help solve the issues. They don't see the constant visits from police, frequent subpoenas for my employees to testify in court, etc. also costs us money - we have a common enemy!!