So I spotted this item in the police blotter (which I guess gets published once a month):
03/19/26 Ordinance Violation
Officers responded to a report of individuals removing items from residential recycling containers along Harding Drive. Two individuals were located collecting cans and bottles for cash redemption and were advised that removing materials from recycling containers violates a village ordinance. One individual was issued a summons for unauthorized collection, and the associated vehicle was towed due to an expired registration.
I don’t know who these people are that collect the items out of recycling. It happens on my block and they don’t make a mess or bother anyone. I personally wouldn’t call the police unless I saw them strewing stuff around while looking for cans and bottles. That being said I don’t know what was going on in that particular situation so maybe there was a reason to do so.
Maybe I’ll start putting cans and bottles in a different bin.
A. From the time of placement of the designated recyclable materials at the designated area for collection by the Township or its authorized agent pursuant to the provisions of this article and any rules and regulations adopted hereunder, said designated recyclable materials shall become and be the property of the Township of Maplewood or its authorized agent.
B. It shall be a violation of this article for any person not duly authorized by the Township of Maplewood to collect or pick up or cause to be collected or picked up any designated recyclable material placed at the designated area for collection by the Township or its authorized agent pursuant to the provisions of this article. Any and each such unauthorized collection in violation hereof from one or more locations shall constitute a separate and distinct offense punishable as hereinafter provided.
O.O.H., I feel sorry for these women if that is their source of income and their job.
O.T.O.H., the contract for recycling assumes the recycling company will receive an amount of valuable material on a continuing basis. Metal and paper are worth money. Glass and plastic are not. A recycling truck that recovers only glass and plastic is losing money.
When the contract comes up for renewal and Basso looks at their annual bottom line, the cost for recycling will increase and this will be added to our tax bill.
Jerseyjack,
Certified as Recycling Professions by Rutgers University, Cook College.
(The R.P. program at Rutgers consisted of 200 hours of classroom instruction over a two year period.)
Are the towns currently reducing recycling costs due to there being a profit in recycling bottles and cans at this time? If so, this practice could be costing tax payers money. If the towns are paying more for the recycling of bottles and cans due to there being little or no market for them, then I see no problem with people neatly removing these items from our recycling bins.
I would not call cops on people doing this. I find it depressing though ... seems Dickensian somehow.
Sorry, I couldn’t find that other thread! I did try looking. Maybe Jamie could collate the two threads into one? I hate redundant threads.
It’s definitely Dickensian. It reminds me of the kids who would pick up coal shards that fell off trains near mines that I learned about at the Eckley miner’s village years ago. It’s how the family would be able to heat their home.
Are the towns currently reducing recycling costs due to there being a profit in recycling bottles and cans at this time? If so, this practice could be costing tax payers money. If the towns are paying more for the recycling of bottles and cans due to there being little or no market for them, then I see no problem with people neatly removing these items from our recycling bins.
Cans bring money. Bottles and other plastics do not. The gleaners take cans and leave bottles and plastics.
Plastic and glass are included in the recycling program because the purpose of the program is to divert material from the landfill. The profit from cans and other metal helps offset the cost of recycling glass and plastic.
In 2018, China banned the import of most plastic and paper waste. This caused the U.S. recycling markets for those materials to collapse.
The plastics industry is responsible for convincing America we can produce unlimited plastic if we just recycle it. The truth is most of it goes into the garbage and landfills.
Sorry, I couldn’t find that other thread! I did try looking. Maybe Jamie could collate the two threads into one? I hate redundant threads.
It’s definitely Dickensian. It reminds me of the kids who would pick up coal shards that fell off trains near mines that I learned about at the Eckley miner’s village years ago. It’s how the family would be able to heat their home.
no worries, it was easy for me to find because I started the thread 😀.
From what I’ve seen, it’s only plastic water bottles these people are picking up. Filling humongous clear plastic bags with them. They’re light. 20 bottles is $1:00…. Nowadays the aluminum cans are not redeemable for the five cents as the plastic water bottles these. Who would call the police for this? Who? Ridiculous! If you gave them $10 you might realize how desperate these people are. The town is NOT losing money because these people are taking empty plastic water bottles…. Miserable people living in this town …
mrincredible, the story about picking up bits of coal is my grandfather's, too. He grew up in West Haven, CT, in the 1880s-90s. As one of the younger children in the family, after the parents died, his task was to go out by the train tracks and pick up coal that had fallen off the tender cars. (Later, he also liked to say he "went through Yale," omitting that he was there delivering books.)
end drift
And back on topic, yes, it's unsettling to see people collecting things from the recycling. Maybe the town could overlook "theft" of any items that aren't yielding a profit for the recycling company, hopefully to include plastic bottles....
I could swear I’ve seen them with bags of cans, not plastic. But I’ll confess I don’t look all that closely.
It does beg two questions, if you ask me.
How much of the revenue-producing material is actually being removed from the system by the pickers?
What’s the subsequent material effect on the rates we pay as a town?
It would be possible to answer that question. First, by contacting Basso. The "gleaning" started a few months ago. What was there volume of material collected 2024 vs 2025? Then, how much has the cost of a ton of aluminum increased or decreased during that time?
In preparing a contract, was were the assumptions regarding volume collected?
The biggest hit to the company was the elimination of hard copy Star-Ledger. Depending on when the contract is renewed, that will affect the cost of recycling service.
Other factors could impact tonnage collected and revenue received from recycling. Shift from paper to digital communication (online newspapers, automatic bill pay, online financial, health, utility, and purchase statements, email replacing hardcopy letters and cards, social media advertising increasingly replacing our junk mail) has reduced the amount of fiber many of us are recycling. The recent replacement of lead water service lines has likely increased, at least temporarily, the volume of plastic water bottles in our recycling bins. I have seen an increase on pay nothing social media sites of people asking for all sorts of materials (magazines, bottles, cans, jars) for classroom craft projects and other forms of upcycling. All of this has an impact on the volume of material collected by Basso.
Other factors could impact tonnage collected and revenue received from recycling. Shift from paper to digital communication (online newspapers, automatic bill pay, online financial, health, utility, and purchase statements, email replacing hardcopy letters and cards, social media advertising increasingly replacing our junk mail) has reduced the amount of fiber many of us are recycling. The recent replacement of lead water service lines has likely increased, at least temporarily, the volume of plastic water bottles in our recycling bins. I have seen an increase on pay nothing social media sites of people asking for all sorts of materials (magazines, bottles, cans, jars) for classroom craft projects and other forms of upcycling. All of this has an impact on the volume of material collected by Basso.
I never thought about this but it makes a lot of sense. As silly as it sounds, I’ll bet most of us did at least one papier-mâiché project in art class in school. And the teacher could easily collect newspaper for the project, but how many households now get a daily newspaper?
I thought part of the issue with China not wanting our recycled materials is that they ended up with too much unusable garbage mixed in. I’ve turned into a bit of a grouch on recycling days (maybe other days too but that’s not relevant here). I’ll open the bin prior to putting it at the curb and pick out the stuff that my family knows doesn’t belong in there like plastic wrap or paper food containers that are greasy. I have to assume I’m not the sole recycling warrior trying fruitlessly to save the planet.
Only select plastic bottles have the.05 cent redeemable label. Poland spring doesn’t have it. Aluminum cans are.50 cents per pound at a scrap yard… how many cans would weigh a pound? New Jersey has made it difficult for people to sell empty bottles, New York is actually raising their price to ,10cents per bottle or specific cans, so these people you see filling up a van or truck with huge bags of bottles are going straight to New York with it. Unless you’re selling tons of cans for $100, you’re delusional that your town is actually making money off this recycling process.
The market can fluctuate. The last I heard, the money, such as it is, is in fiber not any of the comingled items. This was what led to the alternate week pick up schedule agreed to by Basso.
If I put free on the side of my recycling bins will it absolve the people trying to make a living of criminality?
Well, from the wording of the ordinance, once you put the recycling at the curb it becomes township property. So you wouldn’t be able to designate it as free. Like I can’t put a sign that says “free” on a police cruiser then legally drive away with it. Although that would make for an awesome story and I’m sure someone would start a discussion thread about it here.
You could put the recycling items in question in a different container and then label them free, I guess.
My hope is that some genius scientists, chemists, engineers and businessmen find a way to reuse or put to good use all of the plastics that we produce and use. This includes all the numbered packaging and also those that do not have numbers. Our modern lives depend on plastics (there is no avoiding them.) so we have to find ways to use the waste. One environmental maxim is that "All pollution problems become solid waste problems."
OTOH my neighbour placed some sturdy wooden, white, bookshelves labelled FREE on her streetside grass (is that the berm?) - she did this 3 weeks ago. They’re still there (got rained on last night).
It’s our recycle bin (yellow top) day today. There will be hordes of scavengers going thru, looking for various bottles. What gets me is that almost no-one wears gloves! It’s a rubbish/trash bin - you could pick up all kinds of nasty germs from there! (there’s a recycle- for-cash station nearby at the local mall)
My hope is that some genius scientists, chemists, engineers and businessmen find a way to reuse or put to good use all of the plastics that we produce and use. This includes all the numbered packaging and also those that do not have numbers. Our modern lives depend on plastics (there is no avoiding them.) so we have to find ways to use the waste. One environmental maxim is that "All pollution problems become solid waste problems."
it is possible to reduce your reliance on plastics significantly though. E.g powdered laundry and dishwasher detergents in a cardboard box, bar soap, bar shampoo, little dissolvable foaming hand soap pellets, reusable silicone gallon ziplocks, reusable beeswax wrap rather than cling wrap. I haven't been able to get completely away from cling wrap but I have been working on the same roll for about two years now. It isn't always easy and there is short term excess cost, though eventually you break even and do better.
So I spotted this item in the police blotter (which I guess gets published once a month):
03/19/26 Ordinance Violation
Officers responded to a report of individuals removing items from residential recycling containers along Harding Drive. Two individuals were located collecting cans and bottles for cash redemption and were advised that removing materials from recycling containers violates a village ordinance. One individual was issued a summons for unauthorized collection, and the associated vehicle was towed due to an expired registration.
I don’t know who these people are that collect the items out of recycling. It happens on my block and they don’t make a mess or bother anyone. I personally wouldn’t call the police unless I saw them strewing stuff around while looking for cans and bottles. That being said I don’t know what was going on in that particular situation so maybe there was a reason to do so.
Maybe I’ll start putting cans and bottles in a different bin.