How do I prove where I got my copper from? I can tell you why all of these things are bad ideas. They are bad ideas because you are outlawing legal commerce.

Copper has value. If people have this copper in their garage they can then get some value. The copper then goes back into the economy. Win Win. However if there is no gain to recycling it it might not quickly end up back into the economy. This is of course bad.

A totally radical view is to simply outlaw stealing :)