Lol. I'm curious if metal recycle centers have any restrictions like Wire, Grates, Man-hole Covers, etc., or if it is usually an anything-goes operation. Anyone know?
I am a General Foreman for an electrical contracting company. Over the past 10 years or so I have had roughly $250,000 dollars worth of copper wire or steel structures stolen from my jobsites. In the Seattle area the laws are a joke that never get enforced. It is a criminal enterprise run by absolute asshats. If someone showed up at your business with a flatbed truck and 4 BRAND NEW 5000' reels of #2 copper you would naturally think that normal people would recycle it for 40% of what it cost to purchase right? How about pallets of cast iron vault lids, still banded up with WSDOT paperwork hanging from it identifying the job name, contract #, and my contact number for the trucking outfit. Yep, normal people recycle that sht legally right? Then they have the nerve to show up at my office in the field and want a chance at my scraps that I do recycle, which are usually 10-15' chunks, NOT whole spools. If everyone had to wait 7 days for a CHECK mailed to an address, not a PO box, a real physical address, metal theft would not be near the problem that it is.
Several years ago on a signal job for the City of Everett, some jackass took a manhole cover out of the middle of the street, caused a nasty wreck about half hour later when someone drove into the hole left in the street.
The only way to stop it in my opinion is to stop the easy money from the criminals running the recycling outfits.
