Texas just passed a significant piece of legislation targeting copper and brass theft, and if you operate a scrap yard—in Texas or anywhere else—it's worth paying attention to. Senate Bill 1646 was authored by Senators King, Flores, and Hagenbuch and cleared committee in April 2025. It takes effect September 1, 2025.
The big headline is this: stealing copper or brass from critical infrastructure is now a felony in Texas, full stop. We're talking power grids, water treatment facilities, telecom switching stations, pipelines, 911 systems—if someone strips copper from those sites, they're looking at a third-degree felony charge. And if they damaged or destroyed infrastructure in the process, that's also a felony, even if the equipment wasn't fenced in or posted with signs.
There's also a brand new criminal offense on the books: unauthorized possession of copper or brass. If someone is walking around with copper or brass material and can't show they're the owner, a licensed business, a utility company, a recycler, a contractor, or some other legitimate party—that's a state jail felony by default. It bumps up to a third-degree felony if the material came from critical infrastructure, if the person is a repeat offender, or if they had a firearm during the offense.
The law also puts new obligations directly on metal recycling entities. Yards can now only purchase copper or brass from sellers who can demonstrate they acquired it through legitimate business channels—owners, utilities, telecoms, contractors doing demo or salvage work, and so on. Transactions involving "burned" insulated wire require documentation showing the wire came from a fire, not from someone torching wire to strip it.
Record-keeping requirements are tightened up too. Yards must log every copper and brass transaction, keep those records for two years, and make them available for inspection within 72 hours of a purchase. Deliberately skipping those records is a Class A misdemeanor, and buying without exercising proper due diligence can bring an administrative penalty of up to $10,000.
One other thing worth noting: local governments in Texas can no longer layer on their own copper-specific purchase restrictions or recordkeeping rules beyond what the state requires. That's a preemption clause that standardizes compliance statewide—good news if you operate multiple locations, but it also means the state-level bar is now the floor everyone has to meet.