In Defense of Curbside Scavengers

* Your article on scavenging raised some interesting issues, but I feel you omitted several key elements needed to understand why the garbage companies are complaining.

First, contrary to the unified front presented by garbage haulers that most scavengers are “professionals” from other regions, I have found in my 10 years in the recycling business that most of my customers are the working poor--people seeking to augment their income with cash generated from the sale of recyclables. While it is true that there are some “pros” out there, most of them concentrate on aluminum cans because the (state-subsidized) redeemable value is not subject to the price fluctuations typical of paper, cardboard and the like.

Second, despite the garbage companies’ dire warnings of needing to raise their rates if scavenging continues unabated, they are in fact already charging for these services. When the California Assembly passed the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 (the law mandating 50% reduction in the amount of waste cities dispose of before 2000), garbage companies responded by offering curbside service--at an additional charge. Since 80% of a curbside program’s costs are incurred in the collection of material, garbage companies factored these additional costs into their rate structures as early as 1990.

Curbside programs were not begun by garbage haulers out of the goodness of their hearts; rather, they are services that have been bought and paid for by the rate payers. As experts in determining the costs of picking things up, it is unlikely that any of our local garbage companies underestimated these costs.

Perhaps the real reason for hauler discontent lies in the third and final element you missed: There is no franchise agreement that I know of in Ventura County where haulers share the profits from the sale of their recyclables with their host cities. As noted above, the greatest cost of curbside pickup is in collection--a cost already covered in our monthly garbage bills. Any profits that garbage companies make when they sell their material to people like me go straight to their bottom lines. What is more, most of these profits are not subject to the rate caps factored into most municipal service contracts.

This last element is crucial to understanding why the garbage haulers are taking the lead against “professional” scavengers and suggests an alternate headline to the one that ran above your story. Instead of “Scavengers Trash Cities’ Profits From Recycling” it would be more accurate had it read: “Scavengers Trash Haulers’ Profits from Recycling”.

BILL McGOWAN

Oxnard

Bill McGowan is with Rincon Recycling in Oxnard.

* Your article July 22 bemoaned the fact that people are stealing recyclable trash from curbsides and causing problems for the trash companies who are receiving less money because of the stolen goods.

Since the trash collector in my city has, in effect, told me to throw away the majority of my recyclables because the company has a maximum about how much it will pick up from one location, I have a problem feeling sorry for the trash haulers’ plight.

As a matter of fact, I applaud the individuals who take the initiative to go around and pick up and recycle these materials. If anyone knows one of those people, please send them to me so I do not have to throw away all the recyclable material my staff and I had been saving.

I am sure my experience is not isolated. If all the people who have had similar problems would speak out, it would put the spotlight on the shortcomings of the people responsible for recycling.

W.H. SHOUSE, D.V.M.

Ojai

* America didn’t come to be called the “Throw-Away Society” because its citizens were rampant recyclers. Even families that did try to recycle had to be discouraged by trash laws that forced them to pay trash hauling companies to collect and reap the meager rewards of their recyclable goods.

Now, because the prices paid for recycled materials have ballooned, some enterprising private individuals have found they can earn some sorely needed cash through recycling, and the bureaucrats are screaming piracy and immediately set out to characterize these entrepreneurs as vultures.

So what if the local trash hauling monopolies stand to lose some income? If worse comes to worse, the garbage magnates can round up all their plastic barrels and recycle them to make up for any money they might “lose.”

If they do have to raise their rates, the incentive will be there for more families to join in on the recycling craze and collect enough to more than cover their increased trash bill.

At least with the scavengers we can rest assured that the trash is getting recycled.

BRUCE ROLAND

Ojai