Posted on 05/11/2015 2:29:41 PM PDT by SMGFan
It might just be a bunch of bottles and cans, but when you get enough recyclables together it can mean a hefty wad of cash. California authorities say a group involved in an alleged illegal recycling scheme was flush with $14 million in refunds after trucking roughly 250 million cans and bottles from out of state and redeeming them.
A grand jury indicted five California residents on charges including grand theft and recycling fraud in March, reports the Associated Press, but the details of the case were just announced Thursday by California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle.
(Excerpt) Read more at consumerist.com ...
I always use Kramer and Newman when I recycle.
They’re the best!
Well, were they recycled or not?
If they were, then the system worked, if not then THAT
is fraud.
I would say "Seinfeld did it!"
But my Father told me years ago he had come up with the same scheme to try and get Bottles to Michigan for the higher price and failed to the exact same reason. Sadly he did have a USPS truck on had to cancel out the transportation costs. :/
That’s what I was thinking (what you said).
This must have happened on the mother of all holidays.
So they crack the whip On illegal trash but skate on illegal immigrants???
If recycling cans is such a wonderful thing, what’s the problem?
Are the dumb asses in government going to get the money back?
So they crack the whip On illegal trash but skate on illegal immigrants???
Stop the cans but not the illegals!
Isn’t socialism grand...???
that was a classic episode....
they need to use illegals to transport the illegal cans.
The fraud is that you get extorted by the state every time you buy a bottle or can of drink in order to “encourage” you to recycle it and get your money back. Apparently people were recycling cans for which the state didn’t get to extort money from the original purchaser. I am happy to see California’s stupid behavioral modification program defrauded.
Chump change to the real scammers operating in California since the program became law.
I have monitored my local official recycling site two or three times a year since the program began and in EVERY transaction the client was short-changed.*
I see only two explanations for this. First, the accuracy of their scales is NOT monitored by the Counties' department of weights and measures.
Or two, this particular recycler cheats on the tare weight.
No one knows what tolerance they are expected to meet (2% error? 29%?) So the error has remained consistent at 5-10% in the recycling company's favor.
I guess our elected criminals decided that so long as the amount is small, it's fine to cheat tens of millions of recyclers by just a bit.
But it adds up!
* I would make up bags containing 120 counted cans.
I always added one can in case I miscounted.
I never, once, got the full amount of $6.00!
The weights and measures folks should be able easily to calculate the odds of that happening.
But it is definitely grand larceny.
That’s exactly what came to my mind !!!
When gov’t (Calif. in this case) sets up a poorly thought out program, people will naturally take advantage of it. And those that enacted the program are surprised? Duh.
Recycling fraud? Damn, probably a life sentence in Kalifornia.
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