Jackson Free Press

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate has put the clamps on an effort to change a new state law regulating the metal-recycling industry. The law specifically demands scrap buyers keep all scrap purchases on their property for three days, so authorities can check it as potentially stolen merchandise. They must keep detailed records of their purchases, as well as information on the individual collectors that deliver the metal. It also requires that recyclers register with the state by Sept. 5.

Gov. Haley Barbour signed Senate Bill 2006 during the 2008 legislative session in response to a flurry of copper and metal theft in Jackson and other cities over the last two years. Barbour warned, however, that the bill still needed some tweaking because of the potential damage it could do to some businesses that deal in the scrap metal industry.

Wingate initially granted a temporary stay of Senate Bill 2006, in response to a request for an injunction from Metal Management Mississippi Inc. But Wingate concluded Aug. 13 that the organization's argument against the tag-and-hold aspect of the law would essentially gut its most effective attribute.

"Having the recyclers hold the scrap metal on site allows law enforcement and property owners an opportunity to investigate and retrieve their property," Wingate wrote.

But the law's opponents say the tag-and-hold clause is the most painful, and could put many metal recyclers out of business. Under this bill, a metal recycler can go to jail for 10 years or face a $10,000 fine for not adequately tagging and holding metal, whether or not they had any knowledge of theft.

Nucor Steel spokesman Jim Shebo said the hard-line approach against scrap collectors would increase his company's costs of doing business.

"The single largest cost in recycling steel is the price of scrap, and if the price of scrap is inflated with scrap yards having to store the scrap longer, it could seriously drive our costs up. They may even have to go out and buy additional land," Shebo told the Jackson Free Press.

Stan Flynt, a lobbyist representing the Metal Recyclers Association of Mississippi, warned that the three-day holding period actually amounts to five days, and that an unwieldy aggregate of material quickly stacks up over that period.

"These guys have 500 or 600 transactions for metal everyday. Some of this metal arrives in 25-yard-long trucks. That's as big as a house trailer. We've had tag-and-hold laws in this state for 37 years for different types of metals, and there's never been a prosecution and conviction of anybody under the tag-and-hold statute. It does not work," Flynt said, adding that even Jackson Police Chief Malcolm McMillin testified before Wingate's decision that his officers did not have time to scour scrap yards looking for identical pieces of metal with no serial numbers or means of identification.

"A piece of copper from somebody's stolen air-conditioner looks just like the piece of copper that somebody scrapped from their own out-of-date air-conditioner," Flynt said.

Businesses in Jackson are desperate for some kind of new law, however. Julie Crump, director of development and communications at Jackson's Magnolia Speech School, said her non-profit organization, which benefits learning- and hearing-impaired children, almost closed its doors after thieves gutted the school's air-conditioning unit last December.

"Our air conditioners were about 25 years old, so we had to upgrade the whole thing. We couldn't just replace the parts they stole. It cost us about $110,000, and we're the type of organization that worries month to month about payroll. Every month we fear we'll have to get a loan from the bank to pay our teachers," Crump said. "If it had not been for the benevolence of the community, we wouldn't be where we are today."

Ward 2 Councilman Leslie McLemore said he had limited knowledge of the effectiveness of SB 2006 but called it a "first step" in dealing with the growing issue of metal theft.

"Obviously it's far from perfect, but maybe this could be looked upon as the beginning of dealing with the issue in a much more comprehensive manner," McLemore said, adding that the council hears of metal-theft incidents almost weekly. "We need to try to address it in some kind of way, and the Legislature made a move in the right direction."

Flynt said the utility companies are using the mounting issue of metal theft to close down recyclers, however. Senate Bill 2006, he said, was designed to address metal theft not by chasing and prosecuting thieves, but by killing the metal recycling industry in Mississippi altogether.

"They've told the Legislature, and they've told me time and again that the overall method of AT&T and other utility companies is to break the back of the recycling industry by making scrap yard owners criminals until proven innocent," Flynt said.

Randal Russell, a lobbyist for AT&T, did not return calls for comment.