Recycle center salvage question

[henrysin44]

So I have been taking flat screens, computers, and A/V crap from my local transfer station (CT, USA) for 4 years without anyone caring, even knew some of the people who work at the place. So today some guy I've never seen comes up to me and says he's the boss and that i can't take anything. His reasoning is that the company that takes the stuff isn't getting enough computers which is total BS as I've been there on monday seeing a ton of computers and tvs, hundreds even (big place, serves 2 towns), and then 5 days later same amount of crap but different. So to shorten that, its a endless flow of goodies. My question is that is there a law against what I do in Guilford Connecticut and how to deal with this guy. BTW its town run. Should I take it up with town hall, talk to the boss and call BS, or just keep taking stuff till he notices again.

[tom66]

It's probably private property, so he can do almost whatever he wants. I have had this problem before, except I was buying them (LCD and plasma TVs with easy faults.) Commercial buyers win out, usually to crush them for raw materials or spare parts.

[nctnico]

Its pretty common you are not allowed to take stuff from a salvage yard. It has something to do with liability or some other crap. When I see something interesting at the salvage yard I quickly stuff it in my car when nobody is looking. Besides some easely fixed TFT monitors I once 'found' a working HP6038A PSU (only the knob was missing).

[Skimask]

Where I'm at, the "salvage yard" pays the dropper-offer X amount for Y amount of crap.  Therefore, it's a transaction, where basically the salvage yard is 'buying' the stuff, and therefore it becomes their property...crap or not.
So, in essence, if you were here, you would be stealing.  Plain and simple.
And even if the salvage yard isn't paying the person dropping off the crap, if the guy running the place tells you to knock it off and you keep "quickly stuffing it in your car", well, you just turned into a criminal in my book.

[nctnico]

Over here the salvage yard is run by the town and the town pays for having the 'garbage' properly recycled. So everything I take for a second life saves me (and everybody else) money because I have to pay less taxes for garbage disposal. Not allowing to take stuff has more to do with keeping everything tidy and preventing employees from charging people on their own.

It would be different if the salvage yard was run by a private company. In that case I'd make a deal and pay for what I take (which I have done in the past BTW).

[Fsck]

you really need to check with the rules of the yard.
in my home town, the one (town-run) salvage yard/dump was a pretty popular place where you can dump stuff AND take things, they even encourage the recycling.

[Fraser]

In the UK the rules are pretty clear on this. The salvage yards are run by a private company and they have the salvage rights to all items dumped. TV's Computers and other electronics are placed in a specific area where the good stuff is separated from the junk. The good stuff is sold to the public or collected by a 'mystery man' who has a deal with the yard on all electronics. To take something from the yard without explicit permission is considered theft in the UK. I have heard that the staff are often pretty good and let people have the odd item free gratis.

There is money in electronic scrap so many yards may wish to stop people like ourselves recovering it. I am all for repairing kit but sadly, at least in the UK, once its in the skip it's off limits.

I never cease to be amazed at what some people throw out at the salvage yard.... its a real shame to see some nice repairable kit getting binned 

[Seg]

Since you've been doing it 4 years, and it's a city thing, I'd just ignore and avoid the guy. Possibly new and looking to assert his penis size new found authoritah. Call his bluff. Worst comes to worst he calls the cops, who will likely laugh at him.

I'm well familiar with dumpster diving, in the US there's generally no law against it. What they can get you on is trespassing. No idea how this applies to a dump but... taking things from a public garbage dump isn't something most American cops are going to waste their time with.

Worst comes to worst the cops tell you to cut it out, in which case you should listen to them. They're the true authority.

[AndersAnd]

Where I live we just phone or fill out a web form for the recycling center's trucks to come pick up things for recycling at our home, and then put it out on the sidewalk the day they will come on our route, if we don't want to drive to the recycling center or don't have a car. So I often see furniture, old TVs etc. put out on sidewalks for pick-up.
There's even a Facebook group sharing pictures of interesting things put out on the sidewalks of my city so other group members can go and pick up stuff before the recycling center truck comes by to pick it up.
It's not legal to take anything from recycling centers in Denmark and probably not even legal to take any of the stuff put out on the sidewalk for truck pick-up.

[henrysin44]

Its run by the town, i was told by the "boss" of the center that some company comes and takes stuff for free and that the company complains that they get too many stripped computers, that right there seems fishy as i actually rarely dump anything cause my garbage service takes ewaste and I've rarely seen a stripped computer. Even then that would signal that that the dump is trying to sell off complete units as a company most likely would just separate the board from the case for gold and aluminum. I heard from one of the workers that that sounds weird as the company just wants gold and copper not computers. BTW I actually ran into this same problem 2 years back and heard the same story from a boss or worker that later got replaced for overcharging people to pocket the cash.

[David_AVD]

I don't see it as being unreasonable for a city run transfer station to deny you taking stuff.  They collect the stuff and generate income (to pay for gov't services) by selling it to a private contractor.  Nothing unusual about that.

[JohnnyGringo]

BTW its town run. Should I take it up with town hall, talk to the boss and call BS, or just keep taking stuff till he notices again.

+1 for a quick call to the town hall. They should be able to clarify the issue for you.  And take notes of what they said, who said it, and date/time.

[Skimask]

Search around the web and you'll find the O/P is looking for some kind of vindication from the masses...something he can take to the local business/council/etc and see "Ya, but they said...blah..blah..blah."
Furthermore, from the looks of it, in my world, this guy is a "Pizza Pete".

[deth502]

why all the fuss for such a simple problem?

go to the transfer station. ask to talk to the owner/manager/person in charge. tell them what you want to do and your intentions.  if they say it is ok (i highly doubt most places would, but i know a few that are ok with it) then its ok, if they say no, its stealing. THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE. after this, if anyone questions you, simply tell them "i talked to xxxx and they said it was ok"

there is no need to try to vindicate your thievery when it all could have been solved with a simple "please and thank you"

[JohnnyGringo]

Furthermore, from the looks of it, in my world, this guy is a "Pizza Pete".

What is a "Pizza Pete". Which "guy" are you talking about? The boss or the dumpster diver?

[Skimask]

Dumpster diver...

Pizza Pete (in my world) = Guy who does jobs (e.g. networking, computers, etc.etc.etc.) but gets all his info via the Google-izer hours, or maybe minutes, before the actual job and, does the job for what amounts to 10% of what a qualified tech would charge, but thinks that 10% is really good money.
What usually ends up happening is that guy quickly gets overconfident, takes on a job that's wayyy over his head, screws it up, and the company that hired him in the first place, gets to call on somebody like me in the 2nd place to make a special trip to undo Pizza Pete's screw-ups, then finish the job the right way.  Not saying that's the way it goes every time, but, ya, generally that's what eventually happens.
As another "for instance", somebody gets a bad LCD, google's the problem, finds out that re-cap'ing it might fix the problem.  Seems like instantly said person is an "expert" on fixing anything and everything.

[henrysin44]

BTW its town run. Should I take it up with town hall, talk to the boss and call BS, or just keep taking stuff till he notices again.

+1 for a quick call to the town hall. They should be able to clarify the issue for you.  And take notes of what they said, who said it, and date/time.

Great idea!

[henrysin44]

I don't see it as being unreasonable for a city run transfer station to deny you taking stuff.  They collect the stuff and generate income (to pay for gov't services) by selling it to a private contractor.  Nothing unusual about that.

I see the money part but the ewaste at this place is endless, as i mentioned, plus their big thing is copper from large household appliances. I think its unreasonable, there is no law i could find, if its run by the town (it is)it falls under (California vs. Greenwood), when a person throws something out, that item is now the public domain. Plus no one cares except this guy, people dumping stuff have handed me their laptops and tvs saying if they work or not and i knew most of the workers, i mainly want to know that if i were to go back and get caught would i get the police on me or someone fired. If those two weren't possibilities id just ignore the guy and go on with my thing. One mans trash is a another mans treasure.

[henrysin44]

why all the fuss for such a simple problem?

go to the transfer station. ask to talk to the owner/manager/person in charge. tell them what you want to do and your intentions.  if they say it is ok (i highly doubt most places would, but i know a few that are ok with it) then its ok, if they say no, its stealing. THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE. after this, if anyone questions you, simply tell them "i talked to xxxx and they said it was ok"

there is no need to try to vindicate your thievery when it all could have been solved with a simple "please and thank you"

did that 4 and 3 years ago, was good till this new guy got the boss position

[nctnico]

I don't see it as being unreasonable for a city run transfer station to deny you taking stuff.  They collect the stuff and generate income (to pay for gov't services) by selling it to a private contractor.  Nothing unusual about that.

Do you really think any contractor would be so foolish to buy waste from 'the government'? I know a bit about this business and it works quite simple: the government always pays a contractor a fixed price per kilo to get rid of the waste. Its up to the contractor to make a profit. Less waste means less government spending.

[David_AVD]

I don't see it as being unreasonable for a city run transfer station to deny you taking stuff.  They collect the stuff and generate income (to pay for gov't services) by selling it to a private contractor.  Nothing unusual about that.

Do you really think any contractor would be so foolish to buy waste from 'the government'? I know a bit about this business and it works quite simple: the government always pays a contractor a fixed price per kilo to get rid of the waste. Its up to the contractor to make a profit. Less waste means less government spending.

In our local area, I believe the contractor pays the gov't for the rights to whatever comes into the transfer station.  The transfer station is gov't owned, but the recycle operation (sited there) is privately owned.

Of course this may not be the case everywhere, but if there is an agreement in place and scavenging is not permitted, that's just tough luck for the OP.

[henrysin44]

Dumpster diver...

Pizza Pete (in my world) = Guy who does jobs (e.g. networking, computers, etc.etc.etc.) but gets all his info via the Google-izer hours, or maybe minutes, before the actual job and, does the job for what amounts to 10% of what a qualified tech would charge, but thinks that 10% is really good money.
What usually ends up happening is that guy quickly gets overconfident, takes on a job that's wayyy over his head, screws it up, and the company that hired him in the first place, gets to call on somebody like me in the 2nd place to make a special trip to undo Pizza Pete's screw-ups, then finish the job the right way.  Not saying that's the way it goes every time, but, ya, generally that's what eventually happens.
As another "for instance", somebody gets a bad LCD, google's the problem, finds out that re-cap'ing it might fix the problem.  Seems like instantly said person is an "expert" on fixing anything and everything.

Don't quite know if this is an insult but I know more than just putting some caps on a board. Yes i have google basically everything, I've actually learned a lot for only being 15. What I do is for fun and a learning experience.

[tom66]

Me too. I started repairing LCD/Plasma at age 17. I got a 42" LG LCD at local dump for £20, faulty, bad capacitors. Easy fix. Two years later I've done 60 more. All hobbies, buy faulty, sell working...

The fact that so much easily repairable stuff gets thrown away greatly saddens me.

[henrysin44]

Me too. I started repairing LCD/Plasma at age 17. I got a 42" LG LCD at local dump for £20, faulty, bad capacitors. Easy fix. Two years later I've done 60 more. All hobbies, buy faulty, sell working...

The fact that so much easily repairable stuff gets thrown away greatly saddens me.

exactly! person tossed a 55" 1080p 3D dip cause it needed a new bulb, a five year old could do that. My town is mostly rich people so i find a lot of great things.

[TerraHertz]

Here's my relevant story: http://everist.org/NobLog/20131202_proj_tvs.htm
Tip browsing seems to be very dead in Sydney, since the lawyers screwed it up for everyone. But some places outside the big city still have common sense.

I never found much in the way of technical stuff dumpster diving, but a friend of mine and I did share a truly wonderful dumpster goldmine for a while. He lived in Arncliffe, and discovered that a couple of blocks from his house, in a small industrial area, there was a factory that made donuts and small cakes. A bulk supplier to shops in South Sydney.

They work overnight, then closed during the day. Out the front of their factory they had a big dumpster. In which they threw all their substandard production. Iced donuts with the icing a bit crooked, cakes that weren't formed quite right, and so on. They made a LOT of mistakes. Every night they would almost fill up the dumpster with delicious goodies. Trays and trays of it.
For a couple of months it was heaven. We and everyone we knew had more sugar-coated confectionery than we could possibly eat. The only flaw was that bees had also discovered the sugar-trove, so salvaging the cakes was a bit of a battle with bees. But they were all fat and lazy (from the sugar) so it was OK.

Sadly, the company eventually closed, or moved away. No more dumpster cakes. 
Also, that friend is since deceased.