Blimey! There's money in scrap!

[Globalti]

Just dropped a small copper cylinder at the local scrappie and got £35 for it! I'd have been pleased with a tenner.

It weighed 11 kilos but annoyingly they insisted on deducting 2 kilos for the foam insulation; I bet that didn't weigh even 500gms so if I'd known to take it off I'd have done even better. Even more stupidly I tipped out about a litre of water that was sloshing around in the bottom.....

 

[addictfreak]

Thats why the local idiots up here risk lives by stealing (live) copper cable from the Metro System!

 

[Chrisz]

LOL. When I was a lad we had a scrappy with a weigh-bridge just down the road from me. Once we'd figured it out we too a couple of cars down there loaded with scrap metal we'd picked up over a couple of weeks. Just to make sure we got our money's worth we ran them off a milk bottle full of petrol and filled the fuel tank with water to increase the weight

 

[Zoiders]

You have the Chinese to thank, they have huge industrial and urban gowth yet their part of the world is rather low in natural wealth such as minerals and ores.

In the run up to the Bejing olympics the price of cold rolled steels and iron for construction almost doubled as the Chinese were going mental for anything they could re-roll.

 

[ohnovino]

At work today we were having a new fence fitted, after parts of our old one where stolen for scrap. I wouldn't normally wish harm on anyone, but people who steal a fence from a children's charity deserve to be impaled on it.

 

[marinyork]

There is money in scrap, why so many many power substations round here are broken into (with upto many hour switch offs) .

 

[Paulus]

On the railway network, many 100's of metres of copper cable get stolen every week. Some of this is live 10.000 volt live cable and signal cabling at a mere 250v. most of it is 100 core cable so it must fetch a tidy sum on the dodgy scrap sites. The thieves just chop it up with axes and make off with it.

 

[TVC]

I'm in charge of winding at a Transformer manufacturer, we're currently paying £8.50 a kilo for copper wire. Obviously there are off cuts, reel ends and rejects, on average I'm passing on £1350 to the scrap man every month and only getting £600 back. The other great thing is that the gypsies try to raid the place on a weekly basis - fantastic.

 

[fossyant]

And grid covers !

 

[Moodyman]

When we replaced our oven, I was not looking forward to getting rid of the old one.

I put it in the rear garden until I decided how to get rid of it. Next morning it was gone. Problem solved.

We get a metal collecting van in our street once a week and they peer into peoples' gardens. If they see what they see as scrap, they take. No asking.

 

[Gerry Attrick]

When we replaced our oven, I was not looking forward to getting rid of the old one.

I put it in the rear garden until I decided how to get rid of it. Next morning it was gone. Problem solved.

We get a metal collecting van in our street once a week and they peer into peoples' gardens. If they see what they see as scrap, they take. No asking.

Flippin' 'eck. Don't leave your bike out!

 

[Moodyman]

Flippin' 'eck. Don't leave your bike out!

They're safely locked up in the garage.

I got rid of one of the kids hi-tensile hand me downs the same way. Left it outside the rear gate and it was gone in 2/3 days. It was unusable so can't see anyone taking it for riding.

To be honest, the collectors have not taken anything that was clearly visible as being used by the owners - i.e. a large metal shovel

 

[david1701]

they also ruin lovely abandoned buildings by nicking all the wires, meaning they get locked down tight and your innocent explorers can't get in

 

[Maz]

Thats why the local idiots up here risk lives by stealing (live) copper cable from the Metro System!

I went to The Black Country Living Museum recently. Their trams were not running because somebody had stolen the cabling.
Some real scumbags out there.

 

[Night Train]

I save all my metal for weighing in, even the cans from food, no point giving it to the council if I can get paid for it myself.
When I get my car serviced I even ask for all the bits they have changed to be put in the boot for me to weigh in.

The one thing, recently, that wasn't really worth the effort was two huge solid rubber fork lift wheels. They must have weighed 100kg each. I decided to remove the rubber first to make the most of the value in steel. It wasn't an easy job and for the money I got for the steel wheels it worked out at about £2 per hour labour trying to cut the tyres off! Not really worth it.


I really dislike the scrap metal van that comes around thieving. Granted they are trying to earn a living but they are doing by stealing someone elses metal without asking or checking it is is still wanted. I lost 30' of 5" square Victorian cast iron rainwater pipe from the front of my house while I was restoring it. Laid on my drive with paint stripper and wire brush and the sods nicked it!