Theft Keeps a Lid on City’s Recycling Funds : A determined effort is needed to stop the pirating of trash

When President Clinton talked about the new American economy, we don’t think he had this in mind. We’re talking about the latest big business enterprise: pirating recyclable trash before the city can earn the money.

When homeowners deposit their ordinary trash, yard clippings, glass, aluminum and plastic in separate containers at the curb, alongside bundled-up paper and cardboard, all of it is protected from scavenging by a city ordinance that threatens fines and jail on conviction.

But a surge in the price of recyclables has made systematic trash-stealing profitable, and law enforcement has understandably been nil. Well-equipped folks with flatbed trucks, not homeless scroungers, are out before dawn loading newspapers--the swag of choice. These pirates can make thousand of dollars a year.

Across the city, massive anger is usually directed at the indigent making curbside raids before the trash trucks arrive. A city phone line invites callers, “To report scavengers, press 5,” and hundreds a week do. Homeowners fume because their neighborhoods are being invaded and because the scavengers are illegally profiting from the labor of those who have sorted the trash.

A recent West Valley test effort suggests that enforcement with teeth can work, but at what cost? West Valley officers issued warnings and citations last spring. And the City Council has a motion before it by Councilwoman Laura Chick to crack down citywide.

Sure, city collection increased 28% in the West Valley effort, but that left the daily tonnage of recovered newspapers well under half what it was a year earlier. Yes, sales of the additional paper more than covered the police overtime. But do we want the undermanned Los Angeles Police Department chasing crooks, or the Sunday comics page?

If the Sanitation Bureau makes a sound proposal, the council ought to be willing to consider it because the city is losing money. Some kind of reasonable crackdown might also be in order because irate homeowners might simply stop sorting their trash if it keeps vanishing into the recycling underworld.

Newspapers have gone from about $25 a ton in early 1994 to $150, and on some days $200. Aluminum has gone from $650 to $1,100 a ton, some household plastic from $160 to $640. The issue of control over the pricey commodities has reached the state Supreme Court, which in 1994 upheld the right of households and companies to sell their trash.

Even with scavenging, the city expects to double its recyclable income in the coming year, to $2 million. Without theft, it could be twice that, officials say.

The Sanitation Bureau wants the authority to shift $150,000 from its recyclable fund to the police or street maintenance department for citywide enforcement. The street maintenance idea sounds fine to us, with the power, perhaps, to write tickets. Sanitation officials think real effort would deter scavenging and the enforcement would be cost-effective. Surely a determined effort can stop the big business types who make a killing with their classic “middle man” status in the recycling business. We’re not talking about the poor folks trying to earn a buck.

Even with police help, the city may never earn its theoretical maximum from recycling. As prices rise, so does the incentive to sell privately or donate goods to charity. The city says it’s undisturbed by that as long as the flow to landfills is dropping.

And that’s the good news. The city is carrying 30% less trash to dumps than it was five years ago, putting it well ahead of a state-mandated goal of 25%, officials say. People have embraced recycling, for the moment.

Night raids, big bucks, police crackdowns, furious homeowners, litigation. Who says people aren’t taking this recycling business seriously?