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I believe that law went into effect the end of June or so.
WHat folks are saying here is - people have shifted more to stealing boat and car batteries! The law does not affect ferrous materials that come out of batteries.
This summer, with boats left out and cars parked while folks are hiking, fishing, etc - this makes easy pickin's for thieves.
What I have read is - the batteries are not going to net them much money, but there are no restrictions on the metals found in batteries, so every stolen battery = $5 - it adds up.
I have not seen any stats at all about copper theft going down (or going up for that matter). Just haven't seen any stories other than announcing the law had passed.
The last two times I bought a new battery I turned in two old batteries instead of just one. I did not get an extra core rebate for the extra one; I just wanted to get rid of it.
Lead is one metal that is in short supply. Perhaps your politicians should have had the foresight to include the (I believe you mean non-ferrous) lead. At the rate things are going; lead is going to run out very quickly.
I would still like to see more scrap yards take a fall for not questioning where all of this metal is coming from. I know that times are tough and there are many legitimate scrap sales. But when you see the same faces all the time; somebody should be connecting the dots.
I feel a bit better and a bit worse today. I took some cans to our local salvage yard about a 1/4 mile form the house today. I want to see them recycled as it saves a lot of energy resources. I also took what was 2lbs of copper wire (#12) by my scales. The copper was from a line of outdoor receptacles (on the front of our house) which I removed some time back. It turned out their scale showed 1 lb as they don't pay increments. I showed my Driver's License and he got my license plate off the truck. He ran it on the computer and it actually brought up my photo and such. Then inside to collect I did electronic thumb print and electronic signature. Then asked to remove my cap and maybe a photo was taken. I really wasn't paying that much attention. Hell of a lot to go through for 1lb sale of copper. $3.10 total sale. But that's OK whatever it takes to deter the thieves. Then it occurred to me it didn't deter the thieves at the salvage yard. If not 2 lbs. of copper it had to be real close so ... I got screwed out of about 1/2 what I should have been paid. A trivial amount but in this electronic age they don't pay for increments of the lb. ? It is what it is ..but I feel like I should maybe get their thumbprints and ID next time.
Has anybody seen the program "Vice" that runs on HBO and was talking about the American scrap 'business'? Here is a debrief that is available off YouTube: VICE on HBO Debrief: American Scrap - YouTube. The program itself talks about how we are picking the bones of our cities and abandoned houses/business so that we can ship it over to China. The YouTube debrief is interesting because narrator and the scrapers are justifying their crime with: It could be worse. But are we descending into the third world so the third world can rise to the top?
It just goes against my grain that we ignore laws for personal convenience and profit.
We have had huge AC's stolen from churches, AC 's stolen off the roofs of hospitals. The house next door to me was vacant. I went outside one day and the AC was partially dismantled. About 3 months later, they came back and got the rest of it.
It is correct in what someone said about the aluminum siding being stripped off houses. We have so many manufactured home parks here in Fl and the theives were stealing that, as well as, aluminum furniture off porches.
there are about 4 scrap yards in a 4 mile radius in an area here in Central Fl. Drive down that road and they are lined up......all seem to be doing a brisk business.
We moved here in January and started looking at foreclosures. EVERY ONE had been stripped of copper and wiring. Very sad and costly. I blame those who buy the stuff. In CT they have to give finger prints and pictures, I think. Anyway it's not as bad there. Here in Atlanta it's rampant. Makes me so mad.
Have you seen the pictures of the people who are crispy critter/french fried for cutting into a high voltage cable which was still hot? Looks like they'd learn.
In the two world wars we stripped America to build our war machines and our infrastructure. The idea that any foreign government can basically dismantle our infrastructure, to build theirs, is very disturbing. China, even though currently friendly, is communist. It might not be smart to give an opposing system the means to eventually overtake us?
Have you seen the pictures of the people who are crispy critter/french fried for cutting into a high voltage cable which was still hot? Looks like they'd learn.
Funny you should mention that. A while back in Detroit, our telco business unit had a rash of circuits going down due to cable theft. Word has it that a guy who was most likely responsible got zapped as reported in the news...and the cable thefts/outages strangely stopped .
Still get a few bursts of similar outages in charming places like East St Louis and other such industrious locales.
this has been a pretty big issue out here for a while - in 2007 AZ put in the following laws
Anything over $300 is required to be paid by check, and the check has to be mailed to the person’s physical address.
You must have either a state issued driver's license, state issued ID, Tribal ID, Military ID, or passport to receive monies from scraps - address on ID will be used to mail out checks over $300.
Anything over $25 will require a finger print of the person claiming the scrap metal
Only one cash transaction allowed per day
No stripped copper and aluminum wire over 3/8" in diameter will be accepted from the general public
Businesses that want multiple people to cash in scrap metal must register each employee with the recycler
If a person dropping off scraps is in a company vehicle, the check will be sent to the company, not the person dropping the metal off
Aluminum cans and steel are excluded from these new law changes
You must be at least 16 years of age to recycle any material
It has helped to a degree - but there are still ways to get around it. A big issue (and one that will be even more impactful in places like PA where population centers are a little closer to borders) is how surrounding states deal with it as well.
I know for a while copper theives in AZ would just travel to other states and risk being caught
There are also other options to get these items to market - in my office building we had our backflow device stolen one weekend and the replacement damaged in an attempted theft the next weekend. Mini-fences have become a lot more popular.
I know a lot of contractors were having issues working at remote sites with temporary yards - it wasn't practical to keep security on site all night and weekends and the theives would hit them pretty hard
Wow. We sure do have a whole lot of regulations and sub regulations for such a conservative state.
All this does is make it difficult for people that would actually be trying to sell stuff for next to nothing to begin with. The address on my ID? Very well may not be in my current address depending on what stage of life I can be in. And to tell me that you were going to mail it just says that it’s going to take me forever to get the money that I rightfully earned through a legal transaction. Which also could lead to me being the victim of a crime because people still mail every single day now don’t they? It’s not just copper that can be stolen from people.
This really isn’t anything new at all. I remember in the south, in the 90s this was a big deal. I saw how little people really cared then and now it seems like everyone cares because all of the copper from these transactions is starting to affect normal people and not just businesses.
This is interesting. I've had people come to my garage sales asking if I have any copper in my home.
I've also had one person coming around, wanting to know if I had gold or silver for sale.
Because of creepy questions like this, I've shut down my garage sales for good. I sell my items online or donate them.
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