Dive Brief:
- Detroit, MI has a long-standing issue with scrappers. Now, amid bankruptcy proceedings, the city is positioning itself as the one to benefit from its massive stockpile of copper.
- As the city transitions to privatizing and eradicating its electricity services, Detroit is poised to make a pretty penny—up to $40 million from the sale of its scrapped electricity lines.
- Although conservative estimates peg potential sales at $25 million, the revenue generated from the sale of the approximately 13.5 million pounds of copper is a much-needed boon for the city, which has lost at least $1 million to illegal copper scrapping every year.
Dive Insight:
Detroit has fought against scrappers via an anti-metal theft bill that passed in March. Measures in the bill include: scrap fees only paid to sellers via the mail, payments issued in the form of a check, acceptance of money order or onsite ATMs only, and requiring scrap-yards to shoot video of or photograph the metal being sold.
Michigan has one of the highest rates of metal theft insurance claims in the nation. In August, state officials blamed scrap metal thieves for a massive flood that left area roadways submerged underwater for days. The state police will report the effectiveness of the legislation by July 2016.
Scrap metal theft continues to be an issue across the U.S., prompting the formation of a group by the ISRI that works solely to combat metal theft.