Hacker News Reader

Comment by andrewljohnson | Hacker News Reader

You must not live in Berkeley. Thanks to a recycling center placed in town, "independent recyclers" roam the streets, collect all the recycling from people's bins on trash days, and it's a terrible situation for both the collectors and other residents.

While collecting the recycling, the collectors steal (from my family multiple times), root through unlocked cars, knife open garbage bags, trespass, wake up sleeping people, and act aggressively towards anyone who interferes.

The collectors themselves live outside of the system of taxes and services, have no safety equipment to to protect them from broken glass etc, and end up in a constant cycle of unemployment, drug dependence, and other ills.

I feel like Berkeley manufactured this "picker" existence - it's an externality of trying to be the most progressive recycling town, and it's no good for anyone involved.

View on HN

Exactly right. People _steal_ recyclables in my area, too, and many Progressives seem fine with theft and the unreported income that results. We have many other criminal acts (which have been caught on camera) associated with this, including rummaging through cars and package theft.

When "three strikes" was foolishly overturned by pro-crime Californians, the amount that you have to steal to be charged with a felony also increased. So people can steal items from cars and doorsteps, in addition to recyclables, and never have to worry about spending a day in prison.

Are you actually being defensive about your garbage being your property?

The problem most people have with "stealing" garbage are that it makes a mess (some scavengers are more polite than others -- I don't have problems in my neighborhood).

The other issue I've heard of is that the companies that collect recycling get money for them, too, and this is factored into their contract with the city. So when independent operators take the recycling it cuts into their revenue and upsets the government.

No. I am concerned about the city's property being stolen.

The recyclables belong to the city once I leave it out for recycling. They collect the value from it, including any deposit value.

As a Taxpayer, I want this value to go to the city.

Ah what a bummer. A well articulated argument followed up by lame ad hominem.

Have a good night!

Do you honestly think anyone is "pro-crime"? Being against 3 strikes is just about believing judges should be using their own discretion when sentencing as far as I can tell and not required to hand down mandatory sentencing.

I think of the bottle deposit fee as an extremely inefficient wealth redistribution scheme. Nothing wrong with redistribution, but it might be a lot cheaper to give people money.

When I was kid, recycling was less common and the bottle return fee was worth more so I feel like more people participated. Now most people put their cans and bottles in the city recycling and lose the fee.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com