I have occasionally been up late on garbage night and noticed two men in a pickup truck rummaging through the recycling bins on my street. Presumably for return-for-deposit bottles and cans.
It doesn’t bother me at all, but I’m curious to know if they are risking arrest and imprisonment. (This would be under California law.)
Are they stealing from me? From the official collectors? Are the consequences serious?
Of course, this is not a request for legal advice and you are not my lawyer.
In CA, I beleive it depends upon local law. Call your local county supervisor/city councilman.IANAL.
Thanks, DrDeth.
If it helps to get a deeper response I’m in Bay Point, east Contra Costa County.
"418-2.004 Permit required.
No person, municipality, or governmental agency shall collect or transport any refuse on the public streets or highways of this county without first having obtained a permit from the board of supervisors. (Prior code § 4501: Ord. 1443)."
Does it count as refuse if it’s so desirable people will root through garbage for it?
Wow, Dr.! Thanks for going the extra mile on that. It’s clear from that that it’s illegal. I kinda figured it was–just not what kind of crime.
I wonder though how often, if ever, they get in trouble. I can’t imagine that it’s a big priority for local law enforcement.
Anyway, thanks again.
No problem, that’s the kind of stuff I do. If it the case of homeless type individuals doing it (getting the aluminum cans and tossing them into their shopping cart), then the police would likely just run them off, unless they were making a big mess. However, if it was some dudes in a truck, they might very well go after them.
When I was living in Sacramento (about 15 years ago) there was much hand-wringing over the problem. When the gypsy scavengers rummage through the bins and steal the recyclables, the city loses that money.
Naturally, this is a rather low-priority crime and the cops will probably never have time to apprehend someone for this.
Dumpster diving was common when I lived in Hollywood. Kids would order pizza, not show up (of course) and after closing time would “Dive” for the tossed away pizza in the dumpster. Never did this myself. Yet.
My city has an ordinance (I believe…it’s suggested at least on their Web site) that once the recyclables are placed in the blue bins and out by the curb, they become the property of the city.
I agree that DrDeth did some research on this issue, but it’s not clear to me that the activity described by the OP would violate the ordinance located by DrD. It might violate it, but it’s less than completely clear that it does.
If I represented someone arrested under this ordinance (which of course I would never do, as I am not licensed in California), I’d consider arguing three points:
Taking only bottles and cans doesn’t violate the law, because the definition of refuse in the ordinance does not clearly encompass such items, and that ambiguity should be constued in favor of the defendant;
The ordinance is meant to cover collection activities by someone acting in a more systematic, regular or organized manner. Although it’s clear that people don’t have to be engaged in by a profit-seeking business to be covered by the law, occasional garbage picking is not clearly covered. Nothing here says in plain language that all taking of objects from garbage or recycling bins is illegal without a license. (I do agree with DrD’s point that the defendant’s position becomes weaker if he’s doing so much trash picking that he regularly needs a truck.)
There’s an exclusion that appears to cover at least some recyclable waste items. See 418-2.010.
Usual disclaimer. I’m not your lawyer and this is not reliable legal advice. See a lawyer licensed in California for that.
Depending upon your local jurisdiction, trash left at curbside for pickup is fair game for anyone and everyone to rummage. That’s when you hear about a reporter going through a public official’s trash to find some dirt on them. OTOH, many jurisdictions make it an offense to rummage and steal recyclables left at curbside, even though the trash is fair game.
For example, Washington State law provides for penalities up to $1,000 for stealing recyclables from curbside, but apparently says nothing about theft of garbage from curbside.
My bins are actually owned by Cal-San, the company my town (in LA county) contracts with to perform garbage removal. By putting something in any of their bins, I suppose legally I am transferring ownership of those items to Cal-San. When someone dives in the bins, they are interfering with private property.
IANAL and I have no idea if any of the above has been tested in court.
Wouldn’t have been a good strategy at the pizza place I worked at. Whenever there was an unclaimed order, it would inevitably enter the stomachs of The Crew before it got to the dumpster.
Leave the poor suckers alone. If they have to do that for income they have far worse problems than you or I may ever know, knock on wood.
I cheerfully concede that if a “trash picker” got himself a good lawyer, he’d probably get off. OTOH, the Code section would very likely give a police officer enough authority to tell someone to stop doing that. Fair enough, Counselor? 
The FAQ for the El Cerrito recycling center says that unauthorized taking of materials left out for curbside pickup is a crime:
El Cerrito (where I live) is also in Contra Costa County. I once saw a couple of guys taking cans and bottles from the curbside bins on my street. I reported it to the police, and a squad car came by a few minutes later. In this case, at least, the police did pay attention to the complaint.
It costs money to send trucks out to do curbside collection of cans, bottles and newspapers. The system can’t work if thieves empty the bins before the trucks from the recycling center can get to them. I suppose you could make a case that we should leave curbside pickup to the first person who shows up to take the stuff on a particular day, rather than have exclusive contracts or government agencies do it, but I doubt this could be made to work. People need to know when they put their recyclables out that someone will be there for sure pick up the stuff, and this won’t happen unless someone has the responsibility to do it. Someone who has this responsibility - to visit every address in a community once a week to pick up recycling - can’t make money (or break even) if the bins are empty by the time they get there.
So what constitutes “unauthorized”? If I permit the action and not call the police, am I not authorizing the “theft”? I’m under no obligation to recycle; I’m only doing it so my neighbors think I give a crap about ecology. If Willie wants the bottles, I’d prefer that Willie have them than a company that profits on my taking the trouble to separate my garbage with no return on that effort back to me. If Willie doesn’t come by, then El Cerrito is certainly welcome to the bottles. Oh, they’re in the bins, so now they’re El Cerrito’s property and I’m not authorized to gift them out? Does that also mean I can’t change my mind and remove them myself, i.e., no Indian giving? If I’m always free to change my mind, then I can task Willie on my behalf to remove them from the bin for me for transfer to his possession.
Are these petty laws just set up to line up someone’s pocket? I’m not against making a buck, but this just seems petty.
Humorous anecdote alert!
My sisters father-in-law was visiting Northern Ontario (from British Columbia). Apparently in Ontario they do not do bottle returns, in BC if you return a pop can you get $0.05, beer cans will get you $0.10.
Anyway he was staying there for a couple of weeks and there were some recycling bins by where he was at. He notice all the beer and pop cans that were being placed in the bins. So he grabbed a fishing net and grabbed all the bottles and cans he could. He crushed the cans to make them smaller. In a few days he had enough to fill the back of his truck. So he bought a trailer (8’x12’x2) and filled that.
When he came back to BC, he took everything to a bottle depot and made $1,600 CAN!! He paid for the trailer, the gas to and from Ontario and pocketed a couple hundred bucks!
Pure comedy gold! As you can tell he is fairly cheap (for my sisters wedding he bought a tuxedo for $5 at a Salvation Army store).
So can I assume he broke the law in Ontario? Judging by the pure volume of bottles and cans he got, I’m sure a lot of people saw him do this. I would think someone would have said something?
MtM