If you’ve been following for awhile, you probably know where I stand on scrap, street recycling, and dumpster diving. Turns out, all the thousands of dollars I’ve pulled off the streets of New York is yet anther illegal activity I’ve unwittingly crawled into. Turns out, making a side living off waste is a big no-no according to city politics.
Apparently a man (and his mother) were fined $4000 and had their car impounded as a result of picking up an air conditioning unit off the street that was destined for the dump. This is total and utter bullshit and completely unacceptable. The Department of Sanitation claims that scrap is an important revenue source for New York City (plus the fines too) and accounts for a whopping $300,000 per year, and trash picking is considered “theft of city property.” This is a paltry number when faced with the billions of wasted tax dollars NYC is famous for generating. This probably accounts for one of dozens of ego-driven dining festivals held by Mayor Bloomberg at Gracy Mansion.
I have pulled dozens if not hundreds of such air conditioners off the street over the years. Often the only problem is a switch or condenser that is easily repaired or replaced and set back in service. Sometimes the only problem is that it’s dirty. I have fixed these units and pocketed $50 and everybody wins. If the unit is beyond repair, I can scrap it intact for about $20/unit depending on the market. The problem with the “theft of city property” idea is that I’ve watched sanitation workers work (yes, I’m fascinated with trash), and these either go straight into the crusher to be deposited in the ocean or set aside for later pickup. The real problem is that many sanitation workers are scrapping these themselves and don’t like the competition. Using a heavy government stick to pummel your competition isn’t really an even playing field, especially since the Sanitation Workers Union is the most powerful in the city.
Here we go again, New York City. This middle finger is for you for the relentless stupidity and waste that could go away with the scribble of an expensive, taxpayer-purchased pen. The only consolation is that this type of system cannot last forever, and when it gets dismantled I will feel relieved not frightened. It is not possible to sustain such a colossal waste of resources when combined with reinforced and strictly regimented stupidity and government corruption. I am going to continue to pull usable trash off the street because the bullying and ridiculous overbearance cannot deter me from doing what is right. In fact, I may step up my effort out of annoyance. Not really the deterrence the Department of Sanitation was hoping for, huh? I never imagined I would have to make a stand on trash. Wouldn’t the Founders be so proud that we’re now fighting over expensive garbage? WTF?
Of course, maybe a better idea is just forget about air conditioners altogether. Looks like AC just keeps creating problems.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Go for it, Tommy. The only way we can change this criminal system is to tell the bastards to go to hell.
This is what I was telling you before about New Orleans. I used to go to the dump to get construction materials and got in trouble. The dump got paid by how many truck loads were removed from it. Larger construction companies would dump treated lumber, cinder blocks, etc.
I got it now.
We should start a fund to pay this guy’s fine. This is totally ridiculous. Can you imagine getting hit for $4000 for picking up trash? Just plain stupid.
I’m going to try and contact this guy….
Natural activities are illegal in the eyes of all political organizations. The point of political power is to ‘own’ the activity of human beings and their environment. “Killing stuff and cleaning stuff up” is what most of nature does. You BARBARIAN!!! How DARE you pick up trash!!?!
My wife is from Nantucket (insert your limerick here) and grew up on a fisherman’s wages. Being thirty miles from the mainland, dumping trash is a very expensive proposition. The islanders call the dump the “Madeket Mall”, because as soon as you pull in, there are people scanning your stuff to salvage the good stuff. This is actually encouraged and no shame is attached. My wife is a world class shopper of thrift stores and yard sales; and being a remodeling contractor, I tear out better stuff than I have in my own home.
Our home is the envy of many of our friends, and there are few things in it that were bought from a retail store. Plus, people know to ask us if we want stuff before they just pitch it.
I wasn’t happy that my dad (raised on a farm during the depression) fixed my old bike year after year when I was a kid, but I am profoundly grateful that I was shown that principle now.
Viva the Brown Revolution…..
I have a friend who was just fired from a garbage collecting company for “hopper-shopping”, that is, taking stuff from the back of the garbage truck, stuff that is literally minutes away from an eternity of entombment.
I was so pissed, I wanted to plant a pipe bomb in their office.
Whoops! Did I say that out loud…?
Peace on Earth!
Years ago I read a book titled, “Freedom in an Unfree World”. I highly recommend it.
Pax,
Yes. That was definitely out loud.
I’ve got no problem with collectors doing the collecting instead of usable stuff entering the waste stream. My problem is with the unfair treatment. Yeah, what you’re talking about is similar to somebody taking home a pile of food who works in a kitchen moments before it’s about to be dumped on a curb — then getting in trouble for it.
If somebody is willing to use something that is marginalized by somebody else, then I’m behind that person all the way. I absolutely hate waste especially when it is preventable.
Laws are made to protect us from idiots who infringe on other’s freedoms. You and others like you are doing NYC a service that if anything bolsters freedom. Thus, you are not breaking any law. Sometimes law enforcement personnel need to be reminded why certain laws were created in the first place, rather than just enforcing them blindly.
Our culture tends to conflate legality with morality, never seeing a difference and damn sure not looking for a reason why. Hence the persistence of prohibition on just about every substance but neck oil.
“Dope is bad!”
“Why?”
“Because it’s illegal”
“Why is it illegal?”
“Because dope is bad!”
Ad nauseum. At some point you have to become a bit sociopathic for the greater good. Do things cause it’s what you need to do and fuck the rest of ‘em.
The big picture is often too disorienting for people. The problem with law enforcement considering the purpose of laws is that they start to realize how insane the system they work for is, and that leads to what most of us on FG have been thinking about (legal vs. right, economics vs. wealth, living vs. producing).
The violence is only supposed to go downhill. The rich act as the source of all ‘good’ things and their benevolence is what the lower classes are allowed to receive. When the lower classes start supporting themselves on local resources, it is like the police abuse victim beating up the bad cop: Everyone senses something is illegal because violence is going uphill, but they are confused by whether it is supposed to happen or not. The default is to arrest the lowest person in the chain of command.
You can’t have the trash because the System says it is no longer part of the System. Surviving on resources outside of the System is anarchy.
I’ve read enough Charles Hugh Smith to expect a comment about the savior state and its protected fiefdoms such as unions. Next thing you know they’ll require a license to practice medicine or law. Hey, wait a minute….
http://thatcrashingsound.blogspot.com/
This is complete BS! My story doesn’t have to do with usable, discarded items, but I believe it’s along the same lines of BS law.
When I lived in Salem Oregon (1995-2000), I remember a story of a woman being arrested because she put coins in the parking meter for someone else. She was (IS!) a Sood Samaritan. She would walk down the street and put coins in expired meters for people, because it was nice and she was helping her follow citizens stay within the law.
She was arrested and sitting in jail.
I was furious, FURIOUS! I emptied the dice out of my dice bag (ya, I still play D&D – I’m a dork), filled it with coins from my coin jar, and every time I went to the library or took a trip downtown, I filled meters. Civil Disobedience!!!!!!!!!
The irony of this whole thing is that the State of Oregon has a “Good Samaritan” law. This law protects anyone that tries to perform an act to save someone’s life and exempts them from being sued. So, if I saw a person having a heart attack and performed CPR (even though I have no certification) because there was no one else there willing or able, and that person died, their family could sue me for negligence. The ‘Good Samaritan’ law protected honest, helpful citizens from such lawsuits. But I guess that poor sap passing away wouldn’t ‘cost’ the State/City any money right? Not like filling someone’s meter anyway; that would take away the $20-50 fine for that dime you pumped in the meter… CAN’T F’KING HAVE THAT!!!
@Robert: Freedom in an Unfree World – I looked for this on Amazon & B&N with no success. Is it possibly titled “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World”? (1974 first printing?)
Sumo,
What a concept! I love it! Organize a group of teens that want to ‘rebel’ and get them to raise money by selling cookies or something, then use the money to set up teams that hang out and put money in parking meters just as they are about to expire…..If there’s anything the System can’t stand, it’s being deprived of the chance to sell the ‘adventure’ of risky parking.
This sounds like a twisted, ‘Good Samaritan’ Eagle Scout project to me….
If all those air conditioners are city property then they are liable for the ones leaking Freon onto the atmosphere. Including the ones already at the “dump”.
Wonder if the EPA would care? I bet there are rules in place simply for owning that much AC equipment, in servince or not. Sorry Tommy but fuck NYC and their 9-year old hole.
Clean Air Act (Freon 113 is a Class I substance)
§ 7671g. National recycling and emission reduction program
(c) Prohibitions
(1) Effective July 1, 1992, it shall be unlawful for any person, in the course of maintaining, servicing, repairing, or disposing of an appliance or industrial process refrigeration, to knowingly vent or otherwise knowingly release or dispose of any class I or class II substance used as a refrigerant in such appliance (or industrial process refrigeration) in a manner which permits such substance to enter the environment. De minimis releases associated with good faith attempts to recapture and recycle or safely dispose of any such substance shall not be subject to the prohibition set forth in the preceding sentence.
(2) Effective 5 years after November 15, 1990, paragraph (1) shall also apply to the venting, release, or disposal of any substitute substance for a class I or class II substance by any person maintaining, servicing, repairing, or disposing of an appliance or industrial process refrigeration which contains and uses as a refrigerant any such substance, unless the Administrator determines that venting, releasing, or disposing of such substance does not pose a threat to the environment. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “appliance” includes any device which contains and uses as a refrigerant a substitute substance and which is used for household or commercial purposes, including any air conditioner, refrigerator, chiller, or freezer.
I step back to a previous assertion:
“If I can’t burn it, compost it, or completely recycle it, then ‘they’ shouldn’t be allowed to manufacture or sell it.”
@AUNTIEGRAV:
That’s an awesome plan. Bake sale + “Team Meter” = civil disobedience on an organized scale!
I also like the “burn/compost/recycle thinking. I don’t see me single-handedly changing the manufacturing beast, but I bet I could incorporate this kind of thinking in my ‘consumerism’? Oh wait… my computer
hahaha.
@VIRGO47:
I bet you’re right! If they ‘own’ those then they are responsible for the waste, but then they probably have the Ace in the Sleeve of “we ARE the waste department!” I like how you think though! I bet there is an ordinance against owning that many cooling units w/o having a commercial permit or something.
Just got my car impound today, for picking up a refrigerator from the street. Don’t know what to expect from this,,, Any help on this matter???
Please…
Jimmy,
One word: unacceptable.
I’m sorry to hear you were waylaid by jackassery. Are you broke? I’m willing to throw in a few American dollars to get your car unstolen. Email me…
Tommy