City reminds collectors that once recycling material has been placed at curbside it is city property

LACONIA — The theft of recyclable materials from the curbside should dispel any lingering doubts about their value and with it the importance of recycling.

Ann Saltmarsh of the Department of Public Works, who manages the recycling program, said yesterday that she has had several calls from residents reporting people taking aluminum cans from recycling bins in their neighborhoods. And yesterday a city employee spotted a man taking cans from recycling bins and loading them into his car in the South End. The license plate was reported to the police and Officer John Howe located the man, who told him he was collecting the cans for the Boy Scouts. Saltmarsh said that the DPW declined to press charges.

However, Saltmarsh stressed that once recyclables are put in a bin and placed at the curb or taken to one of the remote containers, they become the property of the city. Removing them, she warned, constitutes theft, for which the perpetrator can be prosecuted.

Stealing recyclable materials costs the taxpayers, Saltmarsh said, explaining that each ton that is recycled spares taxpayers the $150 required to collect, transport and dispose of solid waste. So far the amounts taken have been small.

But, elsewhere, stealing recyclables has become big business. Last month three men were arrested in New Jersey for their alleged part in what police described as "an organized recycling theft operation" that netted the thieves $100,000 from the sale of 900 tons of boxed and baled cardboard stolen from Walmarts and Sam's Clubs. Overshadowed by the theft scrap metals, "cardboard poaching" costs legitimate collectors and haulers of recyclable materials in New York City an estimated $8-million to $10-million a year. Last year 15 suspected thieves were arrested and an equal number of vehicles impounded in the Big Apple.

Meanwhile, Saltmarsh said that tires, electronic appliances and equipment and yard waste has been left at the remote recycling location on Messer Street. This, she said, represents illegal dumping, which carries a fine of up to $5,000 and as many as 90 days in jail. Saltmarsh cautioned that surveillance cameras mounted on the rear of the building on Messer Street are connected directly to the Police Department and violators will be identified..