In my humble scrap opinion, while the legislators of Michigan's new HOUSE BILL 4593 are commended for even caring enough to get involved in scrap metal theft, their efforts in Michigan have proven once again to favor the mega scrap yards and penalize the small operators while not stopping or slowing down metal theft at all.
The new Michigan scrap metal laws are presenting themselves as quite a challenge for all sizes of recycling centers throughout the state.
Read more about Michigan's new law
The toughest part of the new law is that scrap dealers cannot pay more than $25 in cash on the spot unless;
A. The seller can redeem their scrap ticket using a atm type card or encrypted receipt at a ATM machine located on premise.
(Not quite sure how this is different from handing the cash to the customer, it forces the scrap yard to spend $15,000-$30,000, but does not stop theft, nor does it stop the seller from getting instant cash, it only penalizes the smaller operations who cannot afford to buy an ATM machine. In my opinion a very poorly written bill, again.)