On Aug 9, 7:24*pm, Terry Pulliam Burd > wrote:
> On Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:38:22 -0700, sf > fired up
> random neurons and synapses to opine:
>
> >and you didn't whip out your PDA? *What restraint! *
>
> You'll get a ticket in California for using your PDA while driving -
> in my case, using my iPhone, that is, although I've seen a cop on his
> cell phone while he was driving.
>
> In an earlier post in the thread about homeless people rummaging
> in recycling bins set out for collection, there was an interesting
> article in the "New York Times" this morning entitled, "Is It Now A
> Crime To Be Poor?"
>
We have single stream recycling. The negotiated price is partly based
of the value of the aluminum in the mix. If folks cherry pick the
recycling bins for aluminum, it amounts to petty theft. I sometimes
go through recylers in our old neighborhood looking to procure extra
Del Taco coupons (I take the Hardee's and BK ones too), but that's
legit enough. I worry about the police being called, thinking that I
might be rummaging for material to commit ID theft. I worry only that
they will tell me to cut it out, thus depriving me of those extra
coupons, and figure that the only reason anyone would alert the police
is because of the fear of ID theft.

Aluminum offsets the cost to the govt for collection of recyclables in
single stream.

I'm politically progressive, and consistently support increasing my
own taxes for better services to "the least among us." Aluminum is
valuable, mostly because the energy required to procure metallic AL
from bauxite is huge. Cherry pickers could endanger the entire
recycing paradigm. Shame on anyone who throws an aluminum can into
the garbage. SHAME.
>
> Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
>

--Bryan