Scavengers Trash Cities’ Profits From Recycling : Refuse: Haulers say organized groups are depriving them and municipalities of revenue by taking aluminum cans, paper from bins.

Slipping into neighborhoods before dawn, scavengers searching curbside trash bins for cardboard, newspapers and aluminum cans are robbing cities and homeowners of valuable commodities and revenue, trash collection officials say.

Efforts to crack down on scavengers are under way in Ventura County, Los Angeles and communities throughout the state and nation.

Since prices of newsprint and cardboard have gone up eightfold and those of aluminum have doubled in a year, scavengers are out in force. Officials accuse them of creating an underground recycling market that diverts revenue from cities, trash haulers and, finally, homeowners’ pockets.

“In scavengers’ eyes, curbside recycling programs are like having a pot of gold in front of them,” said Tony Alessi, recycling coordinator for G. I. Rubbish Co., which collects trash and recyclables from Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks households. “They just walk up to the pot of gold and take it.”

Ventura County haulers say that home trash pickup rates could go up if the amount of recyclable materials is depleted by scavengers.

“If all the good stuff is gone, then we have to charge more,” said Tom Chiarodit of E. J. Harrison & Sons Inc., which collects rubbish in Ventura, Camarillo, Ojai and Fillmore. “If people are stealing from your barrels, it’s making your rates go higher. These people are very well organized. They’re opportunists.”

Edgar Miller of the National Recycling Coalition said communities nationwide are reporting a surge in scavenging. The culprits aren’t homeless people rooting through the trash, Miller said; they are professionals that make hundreds of dollars daily.

Prices have gone from $25 a ton for newsprint in early 1994 to as much as $200 a ton. Aluminum has gone from $650 to $1,100 a ton. The last big jump in commodity prices was a decade ago, officials said.

Steve Lazenby of Santa Paula Recycling estimates he is losing $200 worth of recyclable items daily to scavengers.

Officials at Gold Coast Recycling in Ventura estimate they are losing one truckload of newspapers a day--about $4,000 worth--to scavengers. Gold Coast Recycling sorts items from Ventura, Ojai, Camarillo and Fillmore.

Alessi said recycling tonnage is off 20% on G. I. Rubbish routes in Simi Valley and Moorpark. In the past two months, the trash company has placed stickers on rubbish cans warning that scavenging is illegal.

“We’ve made 40 citizen’s arrests of scavengers,” Alessi said. “Most of them came from the Los Angeles area and not even from Simi Valley and Moorpark.”

From Ventura to Moorpark to the West San Fernando Valley, ordinances make trash scavenging punishable by fines or jail. But enforcing the laws and catching scavengers in the act is proving difficult.

A pilot enforcement program in the West San Fernando Valley has been hailed as highly successful, resulting in a recycling increase of 30% and yielding 400 warnings, 12 impounded vehicles and 11 citations. Convictions are punishable by a fine of up to $500 and jail time of up to six months.

The increased collection of recyclables in the West Valley has added about $8,000 to city coffers each month, said Paul Blount of the city’s solid resources collection division.

“I must stress that scavenging curbside recycling is theft,” Blount said. “We’re seeing people in trucks, scouring neighborhoods. It’s a well-oiled, underground economy that’s taking money from the city. These are pros. The homeless have done very little.”

State law requires cities to recycle 25% of trash, and by the end of the decade, half of all trash must be diverted from landfills through recycling. Having homeowners and businesses separate recyclables, lawn trimmings and rubbish in color-coded cans has made it easier on trash haulers--but also for illegal scavengers.

Complaints from Ventura County and Los Angeles homeowners have shot up in the past several months, officials said.

“The biggest fear we have is that people will get discouraged,” said Mark Murray, executive director of the recycling advocacy group Californians Against Waste. While Murray said he hates to see cities lose money, he hopes people remember that even with scavengers on the prowl, “the stuff is still getting recycled.”