CINCINNATI — Scavenging for scrap metal to sell enables 28-year-old Milissa Scarberry and her family of seven to get by. She advertises on Craigslist offering free pickup, knocks on doors when she sees piles of metal outside, or helps herself to junked metal left on the curb for trash removal.
She usually earns $40 or so a day, sometimes much more, depending on the haul.
“We scrap every day,” said the former restaurant worker, who has been unemployed for about a year. “We would really struggle without it.”
She and other regular “scrappers” who say they go about their business honestly are worried about an unusually tough effort by Cincinnati officials looking to put a dent in metal thefts by requiring frequent sellers to buy expensive licenses and wait two days to get paid. The City Council could vote on the proposal as soon as Wednesday.
Opponents argue that the rules, which experts say would be among the nation’s strictest, are an overreaction that would hurt honest metal vendors and dealers, possibly putting some out of business, send legitimate sales outside the city, undermine recycling efforts and hurt people who are trying to make ends meet in tough times.
High prices for copper and other metals, combined with a struggling economy, have spurred thefts not only in Cincinnati, but also worldwide. Metal thieves steal catalytic converters from cars; aluminum siding and copper wiring from homes, businesses and construction sites; air conditioners from schools; and even tracks from railroads. Utility power lines and stations also have been targeted.
Cincinnati police have described the problem as virtually out of control, estimating that the amount of metal being stolen each year is in the millions of dollars. Businesses along the Ohio River say they have been hit repeatedly. The welding equipment company Weld Plus Inc. was victimized 10 times in eight weeks.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” said Paul Rensing, the company’s president. Weld Plus has spent some $29,000 on new video surveillance, cameras that capture license-tag numbers and added lighting and fencing. He said he couldn’t wait for city action, about which he remains skeptical, to protect his business. Metal thefts, including stolen air conditioners, have cost his and a half-dozen neighboring businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars.
States and cities around the country have been strengthening their scrap-metal laws, but Cincinnati City Council member Cecil Thomas said legislation has often focused on addressing metal theft “after the fact,” with penalties.
“We are trying to address it on the front end, and discourage individuals from committing the offense,” Mr. Thomas said.
Kevin Lawlor, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc., wouldn’t comment specifically on Cincinnati, but said that the “vast majority” of scrap-metal sales do not involve stolen items, and that laws discouraging vendors or dealers from recycling hurt the environment and the economy.
But “something has to be done to help the victims,” who can face thousands of dollars in replacement and repair costs, Cincinnati City Council member Wendell Young said.
If the Cincinnati licensing requirement is passed, Ms. Scarberry said, she’ll try to buy one.
“I hope we can get one,” she said. “If not, we’d just be out of luck. That would be tough.”
• Associated Press writer Dan Sewell contributed to this report.
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