CITY YARDS From behind a long line of dump trucks that sat idling while their drivers waited to dispose of their loads, a homeless man with scraggily gray hair and a long beard appeared, pushing a broken baby stroller piled high with trash bags stuffed with recyclables.
The man, who said his name was “just James,” was on his way to the Santa Monica Recycling Center, where he was looking to cash in his load, hoping to secure enough money to buy some food and batteries for his radio.
“If I’m lucky, sometimes I can get 20 bucks (a day), sometimes 30, but that’s rare,” said James, who claims to have lived on the streets of Santa Monica and West Los Angeles for the last four years or more, a situation he blames on alcohol and depression.
“Most of the time, I make just enough to get me a meal and something to drink,” he said. “But it’s better than panhandling. No matter how bad it is, I just don’t want to do that.
“I’ve got my pride.” Rather than standing on street corners with his hand out, James prefers to stroll through alleys late at night and dig into trash cans and recycling bins for plastic bottles, cans, paper and cardboard — all of which he can turn in for cash.
The only problem with his methods? Taking recyclables out of city-owned bins is illegal. In fact, taking anything from any trash bin is illegal, subjecting those caught to a $500 fine as well as six months in jail, said Chief Deputy City Attorney Betty Haviland, who is in charge of the criminal division.
“We definitely get our fair share, (of violators),” Haviland said. “We may get five a week.”
Those numbers could rise as the prices paid for recy-clables also rises, and it won’t just be the homeless who will be in court. More and more, law enforcement officers are arresting professional thieves who make a living stealing recyclables, mostly scrap metal and copper from old buildings or construction sites. There have been stories of people stealing guard rails, manhole covers and air conditioning units, with one report of a man electrocuted while trying to grab some copper wiring.
At the recycling center, Allan Co., which runs the operation on behalf of the city, recently put up a sign informing customers that they must show a valid California I.D. if they wish to bring in copper.
There, aluminum cans can fetch as much as $1.55 a pound, while glass is worth $1.02 a pound. Plastic bottles are 90 cents per pound, while cardboard is almost 6 cents a pound. Copper can go as high as $2.92 per pound, depending on the type of copper.
“It’s definitely growing into a big problem, but here in Santa Monica, we don’t get many calls about it,” said Lt. Alex Padilla with the Santa Monica Police Department. “We always encourage residents to call us if they see something that’s not right, but we just aren’t getting as many calls as we did when the (recycling) program first started.”
At that time, Padilla said many more people were diving in dumpsters in search of valuable recyclables, but that subsided after officers began aggressively enforcing the law against such activity. Once word got out that there was a fine involved and jail time, the thefts became less frequent.
TRUE FEELINGS Some Santa Monicans would find the reported dip in thefts hard to believe, especially those who are awakened early in the morning by the sound of shopping carts full of glass bottles and aluminum cans echoing down the alley. Many residents feel the practice of dumpster diving is still going on in large numbers and feel City Hall should be more aggressive in cutting off the illegal source of income, which is another magnet that attracts the homeless.
But just like the issue of homelessness itself, the theft of recyclables is just as divisive, virtually splitting the community in two — those who are opposed to it, and those who don’t see anything wrong with poor people trying to make a living by any means necessary.
Michael Scott isn’t in favor of allowing the illegal activity to continue. From his home office window in Mid-City, Scott said he sees a lot more than just the homeless rummaging through trash bins, throwing garbage onto the street in their rush to find papers and plastics. He also spots organized teams with trucks and vans driving through the alleys at all times of the day and making a mad dash for the blue bins.
One day, while Scott was taking his dog for a walk, he ran into a man he believed was homeless who was digging through a trash can, throwing garbage on the ground.
Scott said he asked the man to clean up after himself. The man told him to step off.
“I told him not to talk to me that way,” Scott said. “He kind of turned his back to me and then came around fast and lunged at my chest with a knife... Luckily, he missed.”
From then on, Scott has been diligent about calling the police whenever he sees mischief, but he has noticed that sometimes, the officers let people off with a warning, something he believes only encourages thieves to continue.
“My issue is that Santa Monica spends so much money on services to help people and they either don’t take advantage of it or there isn’t enough advocates to help people, so the result is someone lunging at me with a knife in broad daylight,” Scott said. “My girlfriend has an 8-year-old daughter and there are other kids in this neighborhood.”
Aside from being woken up by the sound of people rummaging through the bins, Scott said he is concerned about the tax dollars spent on recycling programs and how much of that is wasted when people steal. Increased theft could equal higher rates for residents.
Santa Monica and other cities are required to divert at least 50 percent of their garbage from landfills. A lot of that comes from waste reduction programs, such as purchasing recycled paper and making double-sided copies at the office, but a considerable amount also comes from recycling. The city’s diversion rate went from 67 percent two years ago to 62 percent. City officials are not sure what was responsible for the drop, but an increase in thefts of recyclables could be to blame.
“We are investigating it and looking at what other entities are doing. It’s just hard to get a hold on it,” said Wes Thompson, City Hall’s solid waste supervisor.“It’s the finger in the dike. We can’t be everywhere at once. I’ve personally stopped people and then they show up two blocks away.”
Thompson said solid waste has looked at purchasing different types of bins, including those with gravity locks, but nothing is full proof.
“On one hand,we want to prevent people from getting into the bins, but we are also trying to make them as easily accessible as possible for residents,” Thompson said. “We can’t lock them up because everyone needs to have access to them.”
It is difficult to put numbers on the amount of recy-clables taken from bins over the last year, Thompson said, but he is aware of the complaints from residents.
“We will continue to work closely with the police,” Thompson said. “I have gone out and given my number to people and told them to call me and we’ll send someone out right away.”
Thompson urges people not to make it easy for the recycling thieves. That means don’t bag your recyclables and set them on top or on the side of a bin.
“This only encourages them,” Thompson said. As far as banning people who walk into the recycling center with shopping carts loaded with recyclables, Thompson said that can’t be done. The recycling center is supposed to be open to anyone and everyone, even those who are suspected of digging through the trash. That is why there is no fingerprinting of repeat customers or a requirement to have identification when dropping off bottles and cans and other common recyclables.
“Unless we see them actually taking things out of the bins, we can’t prevent them from coming,” Thompson said.
Representatives from Allan Co. declined to comment. Advocates for the homeless said police should be focusing on the “big fish” and not be so concerned about homeless people who are trying to make some money without resorting to serious crimes, such as armed robbery or burglary. They believe laws such as those in Santa Monica that prevent people from sorting through garbage unfairly target those who are down and out and criminalize homelessness.
Michael Stoops, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, which called Santa Monica one of the meanest cities when it comes to the homeless because of anti-camping and feeding laws, said that recyclables in blue bins should be off limits because that property belongs to the city, but anything else is fair game.
“These people are really doing a service for the community,” Stoops said.“They are going through the garbage picking out things that can be recycled, but people have just thrown away. They are preventing tons of recyclables from entering the landfills.”
Joselyn Sanders, whose bedroom window faces an alley on 18th Street, agrees with Stoops and believes it is hypocritical for Santa Monica to prosecute the homeless for recycling when the city promotes itself as environmentally friendly and offers so many services that attract the homeless.
“I really have no problem with it at all,” Sanders said of the illegal recyclers. “They’ve got to make a living too.”
As for James, he hopes he can continue to make some money and not get caught. He doesn’t see himself doing it for long, but for now, it keeps him moving from one day to the next.
“I’m not hurting anyone and I’m not out on the streets begging,” he said. “I think what I’m doing is fair. How many people are going to want to stick their heads in a trash can?
“I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 13, 2007. Read the original PDF.