Today was garbage day, and we awoke this morning to find that our entire bin of can and glass recyclables had been stolen. I’d heard about this happening around the Bay area but this is the first time we’d seen it in our neighborhood. The paper and cardboard bin had been left full.

We called Allied Waste to request a new recyclables bin. As soon as I mentioned what happened, they responded knowingly with “We’ll drop off a new bin for you. What’s your address?” No account number or anything needed. According to the representative, this is really prevalent now because of the downturn in the economy. Wow. They said they were working with the police department to crack down, but since people tended to operate either late at night or very early in the morning, and the vehicles used don’t have license plates, there isn’t a whole lot they can do about it.

I guess to make enough money (even though it’d be tax-free), you’d have to steal recyclables en masse. Recycling centers in California apparently pay $0.05 per less-than-24-oz. container. I don’t particularly care if people take my recyclables (especially if they really need the money), but it’d be nice if they could leave the bin.

On the other hand, maybe we should just start bringing our own recyclables to the local recycle center.

I purchased some shares of QLTI today in what is basically my first attempt at putting Benjamin Graham’s value investing approach for “enterprising investors” at work. Given the drop in stock prices the last few months, various screens showing stocks trading at 2/3 net current asset value (or NCAV) have suddenly shown dramatic increases in listings versus in “normal” times.

I found QLTI through a 2/3 NCAV screen at Fat Pitch Financials’ Contributors Corner, of which I’m a subscriber. Note that again, there are many different Graham stock screens available, each of which may show a different set of stocks based on definitions and criteria. I narrowed down the list from FPF’s screen against another one based on value, momentum, earnings quality, and predictibility and came up with a much smaller subset of candidates. Of the 8 remaining, I looked at specific financial ratios for each one and QLTI was the one that really stuck out as an anomaly. Keep in mind that Graham emphasizes having sufficient diversification among even stocks trading a 2/3 NCAV, so at least in theory, my just buying this stock should be just the first step among many others to follow.
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