Homeless Recyclers Might Be Left Poorer by the Scales of Justice

Ronald Maughan’s life has taken a tumble.

The 38-year-old Vietnam veteran was a Las Vegas security guard until four months ago, when he lost the job and moved to San Diego. His savings exhausted, Maughan now lives on the roof of a downtown building and prays that the job applications he has filed around town will land him some work.

Rises Before Dawn

Like other homeless people, Maughan has lit upon a way to make ends meet until his luck turns. Rising at 4:10 a.m., the bearded man prowls the streets with a shopping cart, hunting for newspapers and cardboard that he sells at the Allan Co. Recycling Center on the eastern edge of downtown.

“On a good day, I can bring in three loads, and that’s worth about $21,” said Maughan, who also earns money selling his blood at the San Diego Plasma Center two days a week. “It’s honest money.”

Now, however, there is a good chance that Maughan’s major source of income is about to dry up.

Last month, the Allan Co. was cited for using a vehicle scale to weigh the stacks of cardboard and newspaper that Maughan and others bring by in their battered shopping carts and makeshift wagons. The center’s manager, Ed Cook, was later charged with a misdemeanor by the San Diego city attorney. He will be arraigned in San Diego Municipal Court today and faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

State officials say Cook has violated an old weights and measures law that prohibits the use of a vehicle scale for loads weighing less than 1,000 pounds. The law was designed to protect consumers with small loads from the deficiencies in accuracy inherent in the large scales, which indicate weights in increments of 10 pounds.

Accuracy Is Goal

“The idea is to make sure the person selling the stuff--whether it’s cattle, goats or whatever--gets as accurate a reading as possible,” said Manuel Gonzales, a branch chief in the state’s Division of Measurement Standards in Sacramento. “A guy with a bunch of newspapers or some cans could get cheated out of 10 or 20 pounds on a vehicle scale. They’re designed for larger loads.”

Cook, who has worked at the company since it opened at 14th Street and Island Avenue 10 years ago, said he was only vaguely aware of the statute before he was served the citation Sept. 4 during a routine inspection by a county weights and measures officer. He said he has never received any complaints about accuracy from his customers, but he admits there’s no denying he committed the violation.

While the prospects of a fine or other penalty don’t seem to trouble him, the impact that enforcement of the law will have on Maughan and other shopping-cart vendors who trade recyclables for cash does.

Without use of the vehicle scale, Cook said he simply cannot accommodate the 150 or more transients, families and other small-time entrepreneurs who come by each day to sell scavenged cardboard and other materials.

Alternative Called Unworkable

“Since the citation, we’ve been having them unload the stuff and pile it on the little platform scale,” Cook said. “But it’s just not workable. There are too many people and it’s too slow a process. It holds everything up. We get long lines of cars waiting to unload.”

Cook said the loss of the shopping cart trade will mean little to the economic well-being of the Allan Co., one of the largest recycling firms in the county. About 500 down-and-out customers wheel in scavenged materials for money each week, but Cook says that accounts for less than 5% of his overall business.

Most of Allan Co.’s income comes from contracts with government, industry and retail businesses, who supply huge amounts of cardboard, computer paper and other materials.

“I’ll be honest with you, I like to accommodate these people,” Cook said. “They’re hard-working, and this is one of the only ways they’ve got to make a buck. But it wouldn’t make one bit of difference to our business if they didn’t bring the stuff in.”

In fact, officials with the Allan Co.’s parent company in Los Angeles have instructed Cook to stop serving the walk-in vendors if it becomes too cumbersome or interferes with efforts to deal with customers selling much larger loads of recyclables.

With the new state law providing a penny refund for each beverage container returned, Cook says business is booming and “it’s just impossible to get everyone through on the smaller scale.”

Other Centers Too Distant

If Cook is forced to stop accepting materials from small-time sellers like Maughan, it’s doubtful that they will be able to find another convenient place to unload their cargo. There are no other recycling centers downtown--they have been forced out by redevelopment--and most that do their collecting in shopping carts would have a hard time journeying to other centers in the South Bay, Clairemont or other far-flung locations.

Maughan and others whose livelihood depends on scavenging and hawking materials that others have thrown away said the loss of the Allan Co.’s support would be devastating.

“People pushing cardboard are honest people,” Lenau Miles said Wednesday as he and two friends unloaded a cart piled 8 feet high with cardboard. “If we can’t do this, what are we going to do?”

Miles, who has lived on the streets for a year, said he and his friends make about $130 a week between them selling newsprint and cardboard, income they could not do without.

“We sold one load this morning that fed us all breakfast,” he said. “What will we do if they close this down? I don’t know.”

Maughan, sporting a camouflage cap and carrying toothbrush, flashlight and razor in the pocket of his down jacket, estimated that 65% of all street people earn most of their income from hawking cardboard and other recyclable materials.

People’s Livelihood

“This is people’s livelihood,” he said, as a line six carts deep formed behind the platform scale Wednesday afternoon. “If you tell somebody on the street they can’t even collect cardboard and sell it for a buck, those people are going to fight back.”

When he appears in court today, Cook said he will plead guilty to the offense but attempt to explain his situation to the judge in the hope some compromise can be reached. He has collected 150 signatures of people who would be affected by the change and also plans to present the court with pictures of the shopping cart vendors.

“I just want to tell them that this is an unfortunate situation just making things harder on unfortunate people,” Cook said. “If these people aren’t allowed to do this and make some kind of living at it, then they’ll just be idle, non-productive and have more problems than they already have.”

One point Cook plans to stress is the irony of enforcing an ordinance that penalizes shopping-cart recyclers in an era when the City and County of San Diego are launching ambitious recycling programs and the state is promoting its new law providing refunds for beverage containers.