Recycling Part III: Recycling Metal, Fun Stuff!
My world has been changed ever since I found out you can drive a truckload of metal directly to the metal recycling plant and get paid for all of it. I'm loving it! It all started when my in-law's neighbor told me he got paid $150 for recycling the aluminum rims from his car.
Being as I live out in the middle of nowhere, former owners of my property thought it would be clever to dump all of their old appliances and metal scrap into the field and let it sit there. Since I heard about recycling metal yourself, I have sold around 4,000 lbs. of steel scrap and netted about $500. I have also set up recycling cans where I work and I sell the cans for about $.80/lb. Most recently, I've sold about 100 lbs of cans for $80. Right now, that's about what it takes to fill up a tank of gas.
Sure, it's not winning the lottery. But recycling is important and so is driving so it works hand in hand. I mentioned this in a past blog entry, but if you've never been to a metal recycling plant I suggest you go just to see the monstrous cranes lifting piles of cars at one time with a huge magnet...20 feet away from you! It's exhilarating just being there and driving out alive.
Going to the recycling plant is kind of like down-hill skiing. There is a tremendous amount of anxiety as you look down the hill of a black diamond trail so steep you can't see the next 50 feet in front of you. Since you can't climb back on the chair lift and you have too much dignity to scream for the nearest ski-patrol member, you just let gravity pull you down, taking each mogul, tree, and ice patch as it comes. (I grew up skiing in Pennsylvania, ice patches are common!) Once you are at the bottom of the hill, you get back on the chair lift and do it again.
This metal recycling center is in Erie, Pennsylvania. They literally carry piles of cars over your head while you quickly throw all of the metal off of your car/truck/trailer into the mass of other scrap metal.
Recycling metal is fun. In the US right now, the cost of metal is way up. You often hear about home owners having their gutters and pipes stolen right off of their house or construction lot because you can get a lot of money from copper. When I first bought my house, the cost of 250 feet of wire for electricity was around $45. That was seven years ago. Now the same roll is up to $75.
You can recycle ferrous and non-ferrous metals. In layman's terms, this is iron and steel and non-iron-metals, such as aluminum.
Just like #1 plastic, the demand for recycled aluminum is higher than the supply, hence the high cost for returning your cans and aluminum scrap. It is easier and cheaper to make aluminum products out of recycled aluminum. When I took an Environmental Science class one time, we learned that the value of a certain material is measured by the quantity and cost of getting that quantity into the finished material.
So, for aluminum, the most valuable form is the aluminum cans and other scrap that people use every day and which is littering our roads and parks, since it is easier than digging it out of the ground and processing the raw ore. According to the Wikipedia recycling site, recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy it takes to make aluminum from raw ore! That's huge.
I once watched an episode of Judge Judy where she told a 'deadbeat' dad that he should start looking for cans to cash in if he didn't have enough money to pay child support. I think Judge Judy had it right on. Imagine all of the money that is littering the streets!
To recycle your own metal, look up your local metal recycling plant online. I just searched for metal recycling on Yahoo! yellow pages and clicked on "beyond my zip code" to see all of the centers close to me. Call them and ask what type of metals they will take.
When you get to the plant your vehicle will be weighed and you'll give your name to the person who works there. Then you drive into the heart of the operation and unload. Then you'll drive back out to where you get weighed and they'll get your empty weight. Park your car, walk into the office and they'll hand you your check. Now you've done something great for the environment and you got free lunch. Loving it!
Insider's tip: You might feel safer if you wear a helmet!
Being as I live out in the middle of nowhere, former owners of my property thought it would be clever to dump all of their old appliances and metal scrap into the field and let it sit there. Since I heard about recycling metal yourself, I have sold around 4,000 lbs. of steel scrap and netted about $500. I have also set up recycling cans where I work and I sell the cans for about $.80/lb. Most recently, I've sold about 100 lbs of cans for $80. Right now, that's about what it takes to fill up a tank of gas.
Sure, it's not winning the lottery. But recycling is important and so is driving so it works hand in hand. I mentioned this in a past blog entry, but if you've never been to a metal recycling plant I suggest you go just to see the monstrous cranes lifting piles of cars at one time with a huge magnet...20 feet away from you! It's exhilarating just being there and driving out alive.
Going to the recycling plant is kind of like down-hill skiing. There is a tremendous amount of anxiety as you look down the hill of a black diamond trail so steep you can't see the next 50 feet in front of you. Since you can't climb back on the chair lift and you have too much dignity to scream for the nearest ski-patrol member, you just let gravity pull you down, taking each mogul, tree, and ice patch as it comes. (I grew up skiing in Pennsylvania, ice patches are common!) Once you are at the bottom of the hill, you get back on the chair lift and do it again.
This is a picture that I took, while in a panic, from my cell phone. 
For some reason, I felt the need to remember this moment. Perhaps because I didn't know if I would get out of there alive, or maybe because I thought nobody would believe the scale of this place. If you look closely on the left, you can see the truck I was cowering behind.
This metal recycling center is in Erie, Pennsylvania. They literally carry piles of cars over your head while you quickly throw all of the metal off of your car/truck/trailer into the mass of other scrap metal.
Recycling metal is fun. In the US right now, the cost of metal is way up. You often hear about home owners having their gutters and pipes stolen right off of their house or construction lot because you can get a lot of money from copper. When I first bought my house, the cost of 250 feet of wire for electricity was around $45. That was seven years ago. Now the same roll is up to $75.
You can recycle ferrous and non-ferrous metals. In layman's terms, this is iron and steel and non-iron-metals, such as aluminum.
Just like #1 plastic, the demand for recycled aluminum is higher than the supply, hence the high cost for returning your cans and aluminum scrap. It is easier and cheaper to make aluminum products out of recycled aluminum. When I took an Environmental Science class one time, we learned that the value of a certain material is measured by the quantity and cost of getting that quantity into the finished material.
So, for aluminum, the most valuable form is the aluminum cans and other scrap that people use every day and which is littering our roads and parks, since it is easier than digging it out of the ground and processing the raw ore. According to the Wikipedia recycling site, recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy it takes to make aluminum from raw ore! That's huge.
I once watched an episode of Judge Judy where she told a 'deadbeat' dad that he should start looking for cans to cash in if he didn't have enough money to pay child support. I think Judge Judy had it right on. Imagine all of the money that is littering the streets!
To recycle your own metal, look up your local metal recycling plant online. I just searched for metal recycling on Yahoo! yellow pages and clicked on "beyond my zip code" to see all of the centers close to me. Call them and ask what type of metals they will take.
When you get to the plant your vehicle will be weighed and you'll give your name to the person who works there. Then you drive into the heart of the operation and unload. Then you'll drive back out to where you get weighed and they'll get your empty weight. Park your car, walk into the office and they'll hand you your check. Now you've done something great for the environment and you got free lunch. Loving it!
Insider's tip: You might feel safer if you wear a helmet!
posted by Mary at
7:30 PM
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