While on my morning walk this past Friday I was crossing Glascock at Brookside when I noticed a blue pickup truck pull past me. I’d seen this truck the week before and suspected it was involved in some suspicious activity, so I stopped to watch what it did. From across the street I watched as a man hopped out of the truck, crossed the street, and began rummaging through the neighbor’s recycling bin, fishing out the aluminum cans. It wasn’t the suspicious activity I’d thought it was but noted the license plate anyway and continued walking.
I took the kids to school by car that morning and when I returned to the neighborhood I was amazed to see yet another man in a pickup truck, rummaging through a neighbor’s recycling bin. This wasn’t a case of some homeless guy collecting a few cans to get by, this looked like an entire team was out to steal the cans people had put out for the city.
I learned from my Raleigh Neighborhood College days that the city’s aluminum recycling subsidizes the recycling of other, less-profitable materials. I became concerned that if Raleigh doesn’t stop people from stealing its cans it could jeopardize the entire recycling program.
After multiple incidents of seeing people leaving my neighborhood with bags full of cans, I checked with the Raleigh Police Department and Raleigh’s Solid Waste Services to see what could be done. Both departments scratched their heads over this before finally concluding that none of Raleigh’s existing ordinances prohibit someone from taking the cans. I raised the concern with city leaders Friday morning and learned today that an ordinance will be ready for the City Council’s consideration at tomorrow’s council meeting.
Bam, that was fast!
I hope our councilors see the value in protecting our recycling program from rampant pilfering that threatens its financial viability. I’ll be glad to have played a small role in keeping our city green.
Update 21 Feb 3:33 PM: City Council opted to take the issue up at its March 6th meeting.
The guys that come steal them out of our bins at the downtown bars don’t bother me. It keeps them from bumming money. It also keeps us from having so many of the things. I do understand the dilemma, though, because if they stole all the cans we couldn’t get our newsprint hauled off.
Yeah, as I said this isn’t aimed at the homeless people who grab a few cans. This is for the guys who drive trucks around and fill them to the brim with aluminum.