Long Beach Targets Recycling Scavengers

Nothing beats an undercover police officer parked quietly in Long Beach’s sprawling alleyways.

That’s the conclusion city officials are reaching as frustration mounts among residents over recycling scavengers who continue to swipe material from curbside trash containers.

Staff from Long Beach’s recycling bureau and the city attorney’s office have all but rejected a recent proposal by one resident who said she was attacked by a scavenger intent on making off with the cans and bottles she had set aside for the city’s recycling program.

The north Long Beach resident, Norma Mower, suggested an ordinance that would require recycling centers across the city to videotape all customer transactions so that police could better follow up on residents’ reports of scavenging. She also wants the centers to take down customers’ identification before giving them cash for bottles and cans.

But such requirements would likely clash with state law, city officials argue. Not only would they place an undue financial burden on recycling centers, city staff said, but the polices could discourage people from turning in their recyclables.

“You can ask for ID, but if [recyclers] don’t provide it, I don’t think you can refuse them service,” said recycling bureau manager Jim Kuhl.

A city commission that had studied Mower’s proposal recommended this week that the City Council instead concentrate more resources on a public information campaign and work more closely with police who enforce the city’s anti-scavenging laws. The council sent the recommendation to its Public Safety Committee.

With homeowners groups waging their own battles with individual recycling centers over allegations that the centers harbor crime and invite decay, Kuhl agrees that more should be done to safeguard the city’s purple curbside recycling containers.

Kuhl said his department is constantly trying new approaches to confront the problem, including hanging posters around town that tout an innovative anti-scavenging hotline and ask residents to keep their recyclables hidden until the morning of collection.

But so far, he said, the best results come from paying police overtime to monitor scavengers where they strike.

In the past two years, he said, the city’s police officers have written about 1,600 scavenging citations, each carrying a $135 penalty.