Metal Recycling Bins A Community Has Enacted A Law That Requires Residents To Separate Their Garbage Into Recyclables?

A community has enacted a law that requires residents to separate their garbage into recyclables? - metal recycling bins

and non-recyclable. The recycled products are of the city in plastic containers labeled "property of the ecology." The city collects the contents of containers and sells them to a recycling facility, the promotion of the city budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Joe, a homeless man is elected to the days of waste and recycling bins metals, grinding and then sells them to a recycling center. He was arrested and charged with theft of property in the city. What is the best defense for theft of Joe's this?