Curb recycling high-graders

St. John's recycling program is one week old and already there are complaints of people swiping bottles and cans from recycling bags, according toone city councillor.

Coun. Debbie Hanlon described the garbage pickers as "worse than gulls", referring to the seagulls that rip open bags of trashduring garbage collection days.

The garbagehigh-graders are taking the items that are worth cash and leaving behind a big mess when they dump the rest, Hanlon said at Monday's council meeting,

City officialssaid they arelooking for ways to prevent people from rifling through recycling bags before the problem gets out of control.