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City of Sch’dy should junk idea of a law against scavenging

    The idea of a law prohibiting scavenging through people’s garbage is idiotic.
    First of all, the sidewalk and area in between is not the city’s right of way but a public right of way, so the city doesn’t own the garbage any more than the scavenger. Otherwise everyone who drives off in a vehicle that is parked on a street could be arrested for stealing from the city, no matter who actually owns it.
    Secondly, the cost of processing such crimes would be many times more than any amount the city would make from recycling the metal.
    As for people taking the copper out of electronics and leaving the rest, while the copper is more plentiful, the precious metals in the circuit boards, although in much smaller amounts, is worth more. Most of the solder is silver and there are trace amounts of gold and other metals used. I once bought an old IBM computer used to run a city at an auction for $10. It was the size of a desk with the keyboard and monitor built right into it. My wife made me get rid of it, as it was taking up so much room. Later, when taking a computer repair course, I found out I had thrown out about $6,000 in gold.
    If someone is scavenging out of recyclables left out on contract to a company, then the company or the person leaving them out should provide a secure spot for it. Just like you shouldn’t leave your car unsecured, so should you not leave any other thing of value unsecured.
    When I was a kid, we would sometimes walk around the streets looking for soda bottles we could redeem for two cents each. I’d hate to think I could get arrested for something like that.

    GERARD KALEMBA
    Schenectady

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00703&AppName=1

Maybe we could buy some electric trucks to haul all this extra sewage, recycleables and electronics the city is so eager to control.  Only in Schenectady!

Quoted from TakingItBack

Maybe we could buy some electric trucks to haul all this extra sewage, recycleables and electronics the city is so eager to control.  Only in Schenectady!

Instead of cutting something and running the risk of offending their Union supporters the City DEM morons continue to avoid their fiscal mess. Look for more dog insurance, recycle bans and other nit wit DEM proposals to try to increase plummeting City revenues. It's the high taxes-stupid! Until you address that nothing else matters. Keep the DEM implosion going!

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SCHENECTADY
Trash hunters get a surprise friend
Ex-candidate rips ban on scavenging
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    The City Council heard an impassioned argument against its proposed “no scavenging” law Monday from an unlikely scavenger: a woman who has attempted several runs for City Council.
    Mary McClaine told the council that she has rescued valuable items from the trash at the apartment complex next door to her, where the landlord hauls items to the curb when tenants move out.
    “One day there was a beautiful violin sitting on the trash,” she said, adding that she brought it to a fl ea market and sold it to a man who teaches music to teenaged drug addicts.
    “He told me it was going to a good home,” she said.
    On another occasion, she rescued a picture in a frame that had been set outside just before a snowstorm. That, too, was sold at a fl ea market. In that case, the purchaser planned to hang it in his bed and breakfast.
    The City Council is considering a law that would make it illegal to take items after they had been placed at the curb. The law would combat scavengers who take valuable recyclables out of televisions and other electronic items, and then leave the shell on the curb.
    The city can sell electronics to recycling companies right now because metal is so valuable. But the companies will stop buying if they keep getting empty husks instead. Then the city will have to pay to throw those items away in a landfi ll.
    Some residents also complain that scavengers make noise as they rip through garbage in the middle of the night and leave a mess behind.
    But McClaine said the scavengers are trying to make a living — and it isn’t easy.
    “People who go from garbage can to garbage can are working,” she said. “Council wants to take away someone’s livelihood?”
    The council could vote on the issue as soon as July 23. ......................>>>>..................>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00900&AppName=1

Mary was so absolutely correct when she questioned (but of course did NO(T get an answer), that if that strip of lawn next to the curb is "city property" -- the city had claimed that the trash becomes city property when set at the curb --Mary questioned why must the homeowners maintain it (mow, shovel, etc).

I will add, there is no such thing as "city property."   So called "city property" is public property, it is owned by the taxpayers to pay the taxes!!!

There are trees often in those strips of land.   The roots of the trees break up the sidewalks.  The city refuses to cut down the trees, but then orders the homeowners to repair/replace the sidewalks.   why?  

I say, if the city claims that scavengers can't go through the trash because that strip is "city property" and if the city states that the sidewalks are owned by the city, then the city, not the homeowners must be held responsible when someone falls on the sidewalk because the city refuses to remove a tree whose roots are breaking up the sidewalk!

Glad i don't live in the city.   Wondering when those who cheer for the city will put their money where their mouth is and move INTO the city.


.

They need to make it a law not to be able to dismantle the garbage at the curb.  If someone wants to take the TV and dismantle it at home and then leave the empty "husks" then there is nothing they can do about it.  

Whats next them telling us what dishsoap to use because it is messing with the sewage treatment plant......
They doing to tell us to stop eating  and such...

Quoted from TakingItBack

They need to make it a law not to be able to dismantle the garbage at the curb.  If someone wants to take the TV and dismantle it at home and then leave the empty "husks" then there is nothing they can do about it.  

Whats next them telling us what dishsoap to use because it is messing with the sewage treatment plant......
They doing to tell us to stop eating  and such...

They don't tell you which dishsoap you can use, only which dishes you're allowed to purchase in the county.  The dishsoap, they would work on somewhere closer to the federal level.

Quoted from TakingItBack

They need to make it a law not to be able to dismantle the garbage at the curb.  If someone wants to take the TV and dismantle it at home and then leave the empty "husks" then there is nothing they can do about it.  

Whats next them telling us what dishsoap to use because it is messing with the sewage treatment plant......
They doing to tell us to stop eating  and such...

*they going to tell us to stop eating such and such?

They will tell us soon that we cannot eat corn or peanuts either because it cost them more to process it at the sewer plant. Watch and give that about 5 years. Imbecility combined with tyranny is the democrap way. That is why most non-slaves will be moving to the South and maybe someday they will form their own union of states that don't want the coastal tyranny that the democraps wish to impose.

It is just funny to read that the 'elected officials' are actually thinking of becoming 'trash pickers'! I mean just stop and think about it for a minute.....there was some 'elected brain child' that saw folks picking through other folks garbage and they looked at it as an opportunity to make some $$$$!!!

I mean 'some dimwit' HAD to go back to the other elected officials and suggest garbage picking......and the dimwits ACTUALLY thought it was a grand idea!!! All I can say is this is the lowest form of government I have ever seen or heard of!! They are a complete shameful bunch.

They are bottom feeders!!!

You would never know the city is collapsing as they speak.

They need to make it a law not to be able to dismantle the garbage at the curb.  If someone wants to take the TV and dismantle it at home and then leave the empty "husks" then there is nothing they can do about it.  

Whats next them telling us what dishsoap to use because it is messing with the sewage treatment plant......
They doing to tell us to stop eating  and such...

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Schenectady weighs new scavenger law
Taking recyclable parts out of TVs, computers is costly to city, officials say
By Lauren Stanforth
Updated 06:51 a.m., Tuesday, July 17, 2012

SCHENECTADY — The city is working toward making it illegal for scavengers to take the recyclable parts out of televisions and computers that are left on the curb for trash.

At Monday night's City Council committee meetings, council members agreed to tone down language in the initial legislation that would have made scavenging of any trash punishable with a ticket and possible fine.

Instead, they told Assistant Corporation Counsel Carl Falotico to specify that so-called "E-waste" cannot not be disturbed after residents have left it on the roadside to be thrown away.

The legislation was always meant to curtail the growing problem of people smashing out the recyclable parts of monitors and other electronics, which contain heavy metals, and leaving the non-recyclable part of the machine for the city to dispose of.

Falotico said the city incurs additional costs to dispose of the machines after the E-waste recyclers realize the valuable material has already been ripped out.

The initial law that would have made all scavenging illegal raised concerns that it unfairly targeted low-income people who take unwanted furniture from the curb to use in their homes.

City Councilwoman Barbara Blanchard said she wants people to have the right to pick through trash.....................>>>>...........................>>>>............Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/loca.....23.php#ixzz20yAI4e8Z

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Schenectady weighs new scavenger law
Taking recyclable parts out of TVs, computers is costly to city, officials say

because this statement alone (no matter how it's worded) is just too embarrassing for ANY municipality to take up...

I still haven't found where the unclaimed 0.05 returns go....the markets don't get to keep it....

who tracks it?
where does it go?

The arrogance of "public servants" never fails to appall me............