I fought the same battle with the City Of Columbus 1 1/2 years ago . The guy thanked me for "doing it the right way" but told me that the city could neither sell or allow me to have the lights !! 

 In the end it all comes down to laws and liability. With today's sue-happy society , the lawyers have to sit around and imagine the "what ifs" .  What if they give you the light and you get yourself electrocuted while working on it ? What if you cut yourself on a piece of broken refractor? What if you get sick from a leaking PCB filled capacitor ? And the list goes on and on and on !

In a few decades, almost all types of lighting except LED will be extinct in the wild.

I am not a lawyer but here is what im thinking, just on comon sense



1.
The position of sale of object (the luminaire, etc) is not only a position of exchanging an object for $$$, but also the end of the seller's responsibility for what happens with the object

You can go into Walmart and buy any number of dangerous things including power tools, matches. chemicals, electrical parts, and so on. Unless you had been scammed by the shop, no matter what dumb things you can do with them after you exit from the shop, there is absolutely no way you could claim anything from the shop

So the only possibility where the shop could be at risk of a lawsuit is if you have been "scammed" (whether by purpose or by mistake). This may include for example :

 - Buying food that was presented as food, but came out toxic

 - Buying a cleaning chemical that was presented as containing 5% acid solution (right on the package, which you could read at the shop), but in reality contains 50%

 - Buying a laser pointer that was rated to power X and is in reality many times higher power

....

So, if you are sold an old luminaire as "good working safe luminaire", you are scammed and have the legal basis to sue if something happens due to the luminaire not matching the description

If you are sold an old luminaire as "e-waste", this implies that it is in non servicable condition and the seller only guarantees, that it is fit for recycling - Not that it is safe to operate or even to handle



2.
Lets say you have been presented with an old luminaire as a working and safe luminaire by some SCE guy, bought it,, brought it home, plugged it in and it exploded

Where is the proof that it came from SCE ?

Unless you have some receipt for the purchase, pushing charges against SCE is just your word against them.... You could have as well bought it on Ebay from a seller in China, and still go and sue SCE. I have serious doubts that without a receipt anyone could do anything to them at all

But once you have the receipt, and it's their job to describe the luminaire correctly in it. if the luminaire is described as e-waste, this receipt is unusable for pushing a lawsuit because point 1.

And if you got it from the guy on the truck for free, then you have no receipt and no case against SCE to begin with... In this case however the SCE worker might get himself exposed for trouble, but not for giving you the luminaire, but for stealing it from SCE if there is any accounting of the old luminaires

There may or may not actually be any such accounting. In some LED projects i have seen (in public places) there was accounting for every old luminaire, and in some others they were just abandoned and not accounted for in any way

My city is almost finished the switch-out. It was suspended for several years until recently they decided to go forward with it suddenly and aggressively. When I randomly caught the screw in the act  on my street, I asked about it and next thing you know I'm walking home with 2 fixtures and went back for a third one with my bike / trailer. Only catch was they had to keep the bulbs to have as proof they changed it out. It is certainly possible the crew I encountered was not supposed to give me the lights and they just weren't aware as I'm the first guy who even asked about having the old lights. I did confirm that the old ones were getting scrapped and the program only wanted the lamps for the rebate.

I suppose the reason other places are so picky is the legal risks or the intention of the crew doing the change. Some programs require the old fixtures be brought to them in order to quality for rebates on the LEDs, falling short would cause issues.

In a few decades, almost all types of lighting except LED will be extinct in the wild.

It won’t be decades?, I’d give it less than 10 years tops?

Really? Legal issues, GIVE ME A BREAK!!! They're just playing the "LYING CARD"! 

I hope Tomball, TX doesn't switch to LED for their streetlights. If they do, I'll ask CenterPoint (the ones who  do the streetlights) if they are doing the switch over. But as far I can see they're installing AEL 115s for the HPS streetlights that don't work (ex: dead ballast in the fixture).

They may be extra cautious, especially in places where people have sued for the stupidest things and won.

I heard in some cases due to PCB concerns that some utilities that gave old fixtures away removed the capacitors from the old MV lamps before giving them away. Keeping the old bulbs/fixtures as proof they got replaced I think I've heard before.

I've also seen instances of lighting companies and utilities offering "trade-in allowances" for old fixtures or lamps as incentives for buying new ones . Home Depot did it last year with X-mas lights. all you had to due was turn in your "old inefficient" X-mas lights and receive a voucher for a discount off of new LED X-mas lights. The old lights were to be "properly recycled" by Home Depot .

I heard in some cases due to PCB concerns that some utilities that gave old fixtures away removed the capacitors from the old MV lamps before giving them away. Keeping the old bulbs/fixtures as proof they got replaced I think I've heard before.

I imagine that this would have lead to recycled Westy lifeguards, GE bonuslines, and Sylvania Banners, cleartops, and clearbanders.

Have any of our British members been unable to save old lanterns from their councils?

Unfortunately , the utilities don't see it that way . All they see is less old equipment they have to maintain .

Have any of our British members been unable to save old lanterns from their councils?

From what I’ve heard from other members, it’s not too difficult here, but this again depends on council to council?
I was VERY lucky with things I collected as my auntie used to live next door to a street lighting yard back in the 80s, this was way before the days of locked gates and CCTV though, so you could basically wander in and take whatever you wanted from the scrap pile!
This photo was that very yard, taken round about 1984

I hope I can save the fixtures that ger replaced around me because I don't think anyone cares around here.