Recycling bill waiting on governor, who's waiting on budget

After a year and a half of discussions and political wrangling, California lawmakers late last week tightened restrictions on recyclers in order to crack down on metal theft.

But it will take one more step to turn that bill into a law, and as of Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't signing any bills. The state has gone two months without a budget, and Schwarzenegger told legislators that he's not signing any bill unless it relates to the budget, spokeswoman Rachel Cameron said Tuesday.

The governor has until Sept. 30 to sign the bill, or else it will die.

That means the efforts of Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, along with law enforcers across the state, could become partially moot. They'd have to start over and introduce the bill all over again next year.

In the meantime, thieves continue to find pieces of metal to sell for a quick buck — whether it's a vase from a Lodi cemetery, a catalytic converter from a pick-up truck or the metal from railroad crossings.

Under the proposed law, which passed Thursday, recycling agents would have to get a thumbprint of all metal sellers, a copy of a photo identification card and a photo of the material. They would also hold payments for three days, as a way of discouraging people from stealing goods in one county and selling them out of the area.

That's what got Sheriff Steve Moore involved in the matter. Shortly after he was elected, a number of farmers gathered and told Moore about the rising metal theft.

"Theives were stealing a couple hundred dollars worth of wire but doing thousands of damage, and (the farmers) made it clear that they wanted me to get involved not just at the local level but at the state level," Moore said Tuesday.

About the recycling bill

Under Assembly Bill 844, recycling agents would have to get photo identification and a thumbprint from sellers, take a photo of the materials being sold, and hold payments for three days.

Recyclers who violate the law face business license revocation, fines and possible jail time.

Though the law is statewide, cities and counties may make modifications to better suit their own municipality, but only if the ordinances pass by a two-thirds vote.

The bill was introduced Feb. 22, 2007 by Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto. It went through various revisions and committees, and was approved Aug. 28 by both the Assembly and Senate.

An identical proposal, Senate Bill 691, written by Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, also passed.

— News-Sentinel staff

So that's what Moore did, testifying before legislative committees and talking to farm and law enforcement associations. After about a year, the bill basically died due to controversy, but then lawmakers tried again.

In the meantime, metal thieves continued to cross county lines.

For instance, two Manteca vineyards suffered a total of $13,000 in damages in May, when thieves made off with about 1,000 sprinkler heads, according to a Sheriff's report.

The sprinkler heads, which were recycled for their brass content, turned up at a Hayward recycling center, which had surveillance photos and driver's license numbers of two suspects.

But not all recycling centers have such procedures in place, and the proposed law would be uniform across the state.

Crossing state lines wouldn't make life a lot easier for thieves: Arizona has a similar law, and Nevada is working on one, said Laura Ortega, spokeswoman for Berryhill. Her office had been looking at encouraging Oregon to make such a law, but Ortega pointed out that the price of gas would result in very little profit for the culprits.

Another law regarding fire hydrants is still working its way through the California Legislature. Last spring, a Hesperia home was destroyed when firefighters got to the scene and discovered that all five area hydrants had been stolen for their brass fittings.

Under that proposed law, anyone who buys a stolen fire hydrant would face a $3,000 fine.

As for the recycling bill that passed Thursday, people in Schwarzenegger's office had been very interested in it, Ortega said. But if the bill is caught up in the budget mess, it's unknown when it might actually become law.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

Robb wrote on Sep 8, 2008 6:15 PM:

" Nope, what we need is for the recyclers to STOP paying for brass fittings and copper wire that they know are stolen, but look the other way, that WILL fix the system. this has NOTHING to do with the normal citizen.

Make recycling legitimate! "

Report Abuse

dogs4you wrote on Sep 3, 2008 1:28 PM:

" taNdc you bellow about the garbage barons charging customers to haul away their recyclables, that`s what garbage companies do for a living. Now if the customer wants to save a buck or too, ( like me ) they don`t have to go as far as Turner Rd, there is a recyclable place in back of the Lakewood Mall. They take glass, aluminumn, and plastic. They pay the going price for each which is posted. Now all you have to do is get those lazy customers to get off their fat azz and take their stuff and get it recycled. Whats the problem? To put it in the recyclabele can and forget about it, and wait for Waste Management to pick it up sounds like a personal problem. Evidently most people don`t mind throughing money away, out of sight, out of mind. And you putting this on Waste Management? I don`t hear W M complain when they take away all that rotten garbage full of maggots and the 10 lbs. of dog poop and everthing else you don`t want and pay good money to get rid of. "

Report Abuse

taNdc wrote on Sep 3, 2008 8:08 AM:

" I'm disappointed that these garbage barons, Like Waste Management and Vaccarezza, are charging customers to haul away their recyclables and making a huge profit on these materials and then turning around and charging their customers higher rates for the containers and fuel to haul them away, when each individual can take these same recyclables to the garbage dump on Turner Road and keep the profit for themselves. Shouldn't these garbage barons rebate their customers for these products?
And how do these companies assure us they aren't dumping knowingly dirty products? Any program that's instituted should have these large companies and small mom and pops on their list, too. When these companies or individual thieves are working together with salvage and recyclers, that's when the stolen goods are passed on without anyone the wiser. These same garbage companies buy those stolen recyclables from the little guys for next to nothing and then resell for 10 times their purchase price.
Any program instituted to police the recyclable business needs to start right at these garbage dumps where most stolen recyclables originate. By starting there you'll see an immediate difference when the garbage barons recycling profits start dropping immediately. "

Report Abuse

Comments on this story are now closed.

Archives

Story Tools

Indexes