A little late chiming in on this but scrap laws do NOTHING to deter crime. Some worthless crackhead could sneak into your back yard and steal a bag full of steaming dog poo and find a buyer for it somewhere. Where there is a will there is a way and trust me when I tell you, NO ONE has more will than a druggie.
Picture this: Washington state (my home) New law enacted requires any non ferrous metal purchase over $30 be paid for in check after 10 days.
PRE LAW: Druggie goes out, steals 4 alloy wheels out of your shed and takes them to scrap yard A. You realize a day or 3 later you wheels are missing. Being the worldly fellow you are you immediately think DRUGIES!!! and start calling scrap yards looking for your wheels. Scrap yard A says, you know what? I do think we had a set of alloys of that description come through here. Depending on the yards policy you may or may not recover them (you local law enforcement agency can sometimes help grease that wheel)
POST LAW: Druggie goes out, steals 4 alloy wheels out of your shed and takes them to scrap yard A, B, C, D (1 each) because 2 wheels would put you over the $30 limit you see. Now when you call around you are looking for a set (which stands out to a scrap yards as they don't see a lot of SETS) while the villian has split them up effectively making recovery impossible.
Thank you Washington state for protecting me from the thieves and druggies, wait... you didnt help me at ALL! All you did was make it harder for me to recover my property.
But wait you say, won't it keep and honest thief honest? You know the type, crimes of opportunity guys?
How about this: The $30 law only applies to individuals. I am a 'professional' scrapper. I have a business license, I own commercial vehicles. I also typically buy my scrap as I do not deal in a couple wheels, anything short of a medium duty truck load is a waste of my time to take into town. How am I supposed to keep buying material to recycle if I am waiting on checks? I don't have to. All business are exempt from the law. Simply put your business info on file.
1. There is now a paper trail for every single dollar I make in scrapping/recycling. Is that somehow stopping the thieves? (although the 2 yards I do the most business with have both told me they have never been asked to report purchase info to the state outside of a criminal case.) The vehicle for taxation does exist.
2. ANY crackhead with $40 can get a Washington state business license. Granted, he would have to put down the glass pipe for 10 minutes to fill out the paper work, but the only thing between the 'thieves' and daily work/daily pay is a $40 business license.
So you tell me? Method of preventing theft, or method to track what has essentially been an untaxed sideline or fulltime income or many people since at least the era of WWII?
End Rant
-Lance
