Kramer and Newman should've tried the Phoenix-to-LA route

[Batman]

California authorities have busted a fraud ring that netted $16.1 million over the past three years. It involved trucking companies in Arizona collecting aluminum cans -- thousands of pounds of cans -- and taking them across the border to California to collect the deposit.

About 27,860 pounds of empty beverage containers were seized in a Phoenix collection yard that authorities said were bound for California. The raid was conducted jointly by California and Arizona officers.
The containers had an estimated redemption value of $41,836.

The arrests are part of an ongoing battle against those who bring cans and bottles to California or other states that offer a 5- or 10-cent bounty to recycle them from states that don't have a similar program.
This year, so far 27 people have been arrested in charges related to smuggling of recyclables, department spokesman Lance Klug said, the most since 2011 when 32 suspected smugglers were arrested. Last year, the total was 11.

Busted! Recycling smuggling ring netted $16.1 million, California officials say

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

That’s like shipping the empties from Atlanta back to Texarkana. The Bandit missed a double windfall.

 

[exmediahack]

I'm running a two-minute story about this in the morning here. It is TOO f'ing amazing.

Already got my wheels turning a little, looking at road maps to find non-Interstate passages into California from Arizona or Nevada.

 

[The Big Ragu]

To me the story is how ridiculous it is. ... that they are proudly announcing an arrest of people accused of fraud, conspiracy and attempted grand theft. ... and it relates to trucks full of soda cans. We live in an absolutely ridiculous country.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I don't get it. What's the crime here? Even the AG's quoteseems off. Bringing cans and bottles to their recycling centers is somehow undermining the state's efforts to help the environment?

 

[Just the facts ma am]

You pay the recycle fee at the cash register. It's refunded when you recycle. It is stupid liberal socialism.

If you live in a state that doesn't have the fee and cross state lines to get paid, you are stealing from the recycle state's taxpayers. They are not paying market rate for aluminum.

It's not the same as stealing copper wire and getting market price.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

You pay the recycle fee at the cash register. It's refunded when you recycle. It is stupid liberal socialism.

If you live in a state that doesn't have the fee and cross state lines to get paid, you are stealing from the recycle state's taxpayers. They are not paying market rate for aluminum.

It's not the same as stealing copper wire and getting market price.

Yeah, but it's not the recycler's fault that one state chooses to pays fees and the other doesn't.

If I live near a state border and the next state has lower taxes on, let's say cigarettes, why can't I go across the border, buy cigarettes, and smoke them in my home state? Wouldn't I be cheating my own state on the taxes?

 

[The Big Ragu]

Yeah, but it's not the recycler's fault that one state chooses to pays fees and the other doesn't.

Ding ding ding ding ding.

The CRV program in California sets an artificially high price for a pound of aluminum cans there. Consumers in California are on the hook for the excess cost -- if you are a recycling business in Cali, how much you have to pay for a pound of aluminum cans is dictated by law. This created a business opportunity for scrap businesses in Arizona. In Arizona you could get a certain amount for a pound of aluminum cans -- the price was being set, more or less, by the market for that scrap aluminum. But California has their thing in place which forces higher prices on that market -- with consumers having to pay the difference. It made absolute sense for someone in Arizona to drive the cans across the border, sell it to a recycler in California at the artificial higher price.

But California says that is fraud and has had a number of these kinds of arrests.

So we are in a backward-ass world in which they interfere in a market for something and dictate a price floor for something where the market extended well beyond California's borders. Consumers in California have to pay for the higher price they dictated.

Just like any of us would shop around for the best price if we were selling something, scrap dealers in Arizona see the best price by a lot is available in California. So they do the rational thing. But that has been criminalized, because the California politicians had a problem with the unintended consequences of their meddling in that market in the first place. This is the nanny state taken to it's conclusion -- they have created criminals from people who want to sell aluminum cans to scrap metal recycling businesses.

 

[Just the facts ma am]

Like I said, stupid liberal socialists.

 

[Just the facts ma am]

The assholes are going after our straws next.

 

[exmediahack]

I want to see a sequel of Traffic but as a biopic about this. Benicio Del Toro as the trucking company owner.

 

[jlee]

If I live near a state border and the next state has lower taxes on, let's say cigarettes, why can't I go across the border, buy cigarettes, and smoke them in my home state?

Not that I would know from personal experience, but that’s definitely a no-no on the British Columbia/Alberta border. Folks picking up friends from the Calgary airport may swing by Costco and save a few hundred on taxes while stocking their liquor cabinet. Those folks are then wise to drive the speed limit all the way home. Again, hypothetically.

In Virginia, there’s a line item for money spent out of state when you file your taxes.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Not that I would know from personal experience, but that’s definitely a no-no on the British Columbia/Alberta border. Folks picking up friends from the Calgary airport may swing by Costco and save a few hundred on taxes while stocking their liquor cabinet. Those folks are then wise to drive the speed limit all the way home. Again, hypothetically.

In Virginia, there’s a line item for money spent out of state when you file your taxes.

Just take the liquor out of the boxes. How would it get proven that it was purchased in Alberta?

 

[wicked]

I did this when I lived in New Hampshire and I thought I was slick for pocketing $2 a month or whatever when I returned the empties in Mass.

 

[Chef2]

To me the story is how ridiculous it is. ... that they are proudly announcing an arrest of people accused of fraud, conspiracy and attempted grand theft. ... and it relates to trucks full of soda cans. We live in an absolutely ridiculous country.

Game, set, match.

 

[exmediahack]

I'm actually running the numbers to see if a similar, ahem, business plan could be a possibility later when I move out west.

Play blackjack/bet college football Thursday to Sunday -- run trucks full o' Mr. Pibb cans to Barstow and Bakersfield Monday to Thursday.

I'd just some low-stress square job for the IRS forms and the health insurance.

 

[playthrough]

I'm actually running the numbers to see if a similar, ahem, business plan could be a possibility later when I move out west.

Play blackjack/bet college football Thursday to Sunday -- run trucks full o' Mr. Pibb cans to Barstow and Bakersfield Monday to Thursday.

I'd just some low-stress square job for the IRS forms and the health insurance.

I need to go where they're still selling Mr. Pibb.

 

[Batman]

The assholes are going after our straws next.

Next? They've been doing that for a while now. They're quite adept at multi-tasking when it comes to these sorts of things. But keeping the streets clear of homeless people and feces? That's too much to ask.

 

[User 149557]

I want to see a sequel of Traffic but as a biopic about this. Benicio Del Toro as the trucking company owner.

Of course it will premiere at Cannes.

 

[MTM]

The California recycling program has created a cottage industry for the homeless and bums to go through every public trash can and pull out bottles and cans.

I can't imagine they are making much money, though. When we saved recyclables, we never seemed to get back the 5 cents per container we paid upon purchase. Now we just put them in the recycle bin that goes to the curb each week. It's among the three trash receptacle we have -- one each for trash, recyclables and green waste.