Abraham Boackle

A new law aimed at preventing scrap metal thefts could hurt Chattanooga businesses that trade in waste metal, according to local dealers.

The law takes effect July 1 and will require scrap metal dealers in Tennessee to implement extra measures to prevent thieves from selling stolen metal, such as storm grates, manhole covers, cemetery vases and catalytic converters.

“I understand the concept of the law, but I don’t think it is going to work,” said Shirrell Majors, co-owner of Chattanooga metal recycling company Can Can. “I don’t like it at all because I am a small company .... and it’s just going to add extra cost to me and extra paperwork.”

Staff Photo by Meghan Brown -- Fidel Esteba López crushes aluminum cans at CMC Recycling. Aluminum, brass, copper and other scrap metals are purchased by the company from the public at the facility’s recycling center on 20th Street.

He and co-owner Jerry Cain have six employees and process about 80,000 pounds of metals each month, said Mr. Majors, who worries his business will be greatly affected if people choose to go elsewhere to sell their metal.

The global demand for metal is driving the value up, with the price for copper and other materials skyrocketing in recent years, said Abe Boackle, general manager of CMC Recycling. In 2003, a pound of copper fetched $1 a pound, he said, and now is closer to $4 for the same amount.

A ton of new material containing iron was valued at about $60 a ton back in 2001, but today that amount is worth almost $800, he said.

The hike in value has led to more stealing of items containing these materials, such as the recent thefts of brass plaques from the Walnut Street Bridge and storm drain grates earlier this month.

The law was signed by Gov. Phil Bredesen in April, and later unanimously passed the state Senate and House. The bill’s chief sponsor was Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis. The law requires the dealer get a thumbprint and copy of the seller’s ID, and they will be required to keep a copy of the transaction for three years.

Also under the law, individuals will no longer be able to sell heating, ventilation and air-conditioning coils, which are made of metal and are valued at about $1.50 a pound for the 10- to 15-pound coils.

But dealers like Mr. Majors said they feel the businesses are the ones being punished.

“I have a lot of people just off the streets who bring me a lot of material, and they expect to get their $2 or $3, or $4 or $5 immediately,” he said. “What’s going to happen is, they are not going to bring material because I am going to have to either give them a voucher so they can come back in five days and get cash or I have got to send them a check.”

Mr. Majors said a lot of these people are homeless and don’t have an address, “so I think there is going to be a lot of backlash from this.”

Just a few blocks from Can-Can, workers at CMC Recycling process about 30 million pounds of scrap metal monthly. The company, which has operations around the world, had revenues in excess of $8.3 billion last year.

But even with that volume of business, Mr. Boackle said the law could still have an impact at CMC and elsewhere in the state.

“We feel that we have a good customer base of legitimate metal recyclers,” he said. “Some individuals use this as income to supplement Social Security or other income sources. Metal theft is a fractional amount, if any, of a scrap yard’s purchase, and I think that is a misconception of the general public, that we are out there buying stolen goods.”

Mr. Boackle said he knows his industry has to be part of the solution, and works closely with law enforcement to provide them with evidence of transactions, such as video from one of the 15 cameras on CMC’s property.

“Every scrap dealer has to use common sense — street lights, manhole covers, cemetery vases, railroad iron — all the common things that individuals shouldn’t have, we shouldn’t purchase,” Mr. Boackle said. “This has been our practice forever, if someone comes in with those items, we don’t buy it unless they have a letter from the rightful owner, and the new law also spells that out that we are not to purchase those types of goods.”

Larry and Brenda D’Agata own Can-It Recycling Center in Cleveland, Tenn., have been in business for 25 years. Mrs. D’Agata said she and her employees have always cooperated with law enforcement.

Like other scrap dealers, she and her husband have required IDs from sellers for several years. She said she understands what legislators are trying to do, but she is worried that her customers will be upset about having to jump through hoops and could end up going across state lines for their transactions.

Mr. Majors said he felt like the responsibility to stop the crime had been put on the business owners.

“To me, I think I am doing the officer’s job, I am trying to police Chattanooga, and that’s not what I am here for, I am here to buy metals and make a living for me and my family,” he said.

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