I get great reception! (The blue foam pad is to keep the antenna away from my legs and pedals.)
So, being a good treehugger, I strapped our old, busted (the tree-trimming crew dropped a limb on it) TV antenna to Lakshmi for a trip to the metals recycling company on Kaley near Division.
But when I pulled up to the gate, the attendant told me they cannot take anything but aluminum cans from people arriving on foot or on bike. You’ve got to come by car or truck if you have anything else (so they can get a tag number).
Seems our brilliant legislature passed a law to that effect after copper theft dramatically increased last year. I guess copper thieves don’t own cars?
One would think showing a Florida drivers license would be good enough. (Maybe the legislature doesn’t trust those?)
So I dropped it off without getting the money for it. (GRRRR) I wasn’t about to ride home and return in the car.
(This story seemed to dovetail with an article I read today in Orion Magazine. Seems the organization Keep America Beautiful is a greenwash front for the can and bottle industry. They’ve been fighting recycling bills for years. I wonder how many cyclists have been doing roadside clean-up under the Keep America Beautiful flag without knowing they were supporting a group that fights bottle bills which would dramatically cut the amount of broken glass on our streets.)
So if a person shows up in a car, they get the tag but not the DL? Why get the actual person’s identity when you can get a tag and then try to find out who was driving the car later? Lawmaker logic escapes me.
Sort of like LAB being a front for the American General Contractors and the American Automobile Association.
I should have explained better. They have to record both your DL# and tag #.
So if I show them my licence (if I had one) and brought the licence plate from my car with me, (if I had one) would they let me in?
I’ve seen a couple of immigrant cyclists in town who collect recyclable metals by bicycle who DO have old auto tags on their bikes. Maybe there’s a connection.