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Copping Copper: State Struggles With Illegal Scrap Metal Trade

Flickr Photo/Grant Hutchinson

Copper wire theft is a persistent problem. Most recently it put out the lights for property owners along Tacoma’s Thea Foss Waterway. Why is copper such a valuable thing to steal? And where is it being sold? Jay Sternoff is the legislative liaison for the Washington Chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. He talks to Ross Reynolds about the world of stolen copper.