MA Loses $4-6M Per Year Thanks to ‘Fraudulent’ Recycling
5th July 2013
The state of Massachusetts is experiencing millions of dollars in loss thanks to entrepreneurial can and bottle collectors from other states carpetbagging in their wares to turn them in for $0.05 a piece. According to CBS Local Boston, trucks from Rhode Island are traveling into Massachusetts loaded up with bottles and cans, which bring no return in Rhode Island, and handing them over for cash in the Bay State. According to environmental consultant Kevin Dietly of Northbridge Environmental in Westford, “We estimate that something like 6-8% of all returns that come back each year are fraudulent. That probably costs the commonwealth between four and six million dollars a year.”
How is this ‘fraudulent’? You’re the guys paying for the cans and bottles. You don’t want the cans and bottles, don’t offer to pay a nickel apiece for them. Problem solved.
Clue: You get more of the behavior you pay for. Another clue: Markets work, even when you don’t intend them to.