Cardboard Theft: 8 Charged For Stealing Recycled Goods

NEW YORK (AP) -- One man's trash is another man's cash.

New York City officials say rising prices paid for recycled materials has led to an increase in "trash for cash" thefts.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Tuesday that eight men were arrested last week for stealing bales of cardboard off the street during a police initiative against thefts of recycled materials. Cardboard now sells for $75 a ton.

Brown estimated that each two-man team likely netted about $1,000 a night selling stolen cardboard to a recycling transfer station, even if they had to rent a box van.

The men were arraigned on charges including petty larceny and theft of cardboard from licensed trade waste haulers. All were freed without bail and ordered to return to court in October.

Comments

[Kaviraj]

Theft is theft. That is ridiculous?
Your excuse they were "picking up trash" is lame and disingenuous.
I for one, hope the charges stick.

[condor101]

Sounds so petty to charge anyone with a crime for picking up garbage.
I hope the charges get dropped against them. It sounds ridiculous.

[NycGarbageMan]

You think it is petty? I work tirelessly all year to garner accounts to build my business. Part of that business is the resale of cardboard. My salesman get paid to go out and get accounts and in some cases we give clients credits for their recyclable material.

Besides the obvious point that they are stealing. My family and I went through hell in the 90's because we were italian americans in the Garbage business. We had to fight tooth and nail to get a license to own a garbage company, and it isn't cheap. We went through all that for the right to service customers in the 5 buroughs.

These guys go out and rent a truck and take what, for all intensive purposes, is ours and sell it. It is ridiculous that the city took 5 years to finally help out us private carters. When the city had a unit in 2006 dedicated to protecting their cardboard.