Ive been a long time lurker, and I will not deny that this is my go-to reference site for any and every thing scrap related.
I live in Arizona, ~30 miles East of Phoenix. Anyone else in the area?
I'm new to scrapping - I've always had a keen interest in taking apart anything that is broken, going out and collecting things that are broken/outdated/thrown out in a wasteful fashion. I just never really made money off of it. I still have yet to take anything to the yard, there's tons just within 30 miles of where I am at. I work full time as a Chef, this is more of just a hobby than a source of income. I'm kind of at the pre-yard hoarding stage, lots and lots of buckets.
Of course I was ignorant about local laws and went ahead and stripped a bunch of wire, filling up buckets with loose copper#1 - only to see a post on here from another state regarding local laws. After researching, I find that I can not send these to the yard....the thought process now is that if I were to smelt them down, they may take those instead. (I've read plenty of threads on smelting - yes, I am aware that it is a "waste of time/resources" when it comes to money earned for time spent).
Would love to hear from some fellow Arizonans, or members from the South West states, about where they find their scrap. One of the issues I'm finding with online resources is that most guides/FAQs list one of the main sources of scrap & e-waste as trash that people put out on the streets. In this area, you have one day a week to put your trash into one, large, city issued trash barrel (Same for Recycle Day). Nothing can be sticking out too far, or sitting on the road. I grew up in Boston, so I'm used to piles and piles of whatever on the side of the road. I've been getting most of my materials from trash dumpsters at apartment complexes near the university and Craigslist, aside from that there isn't much else I can think of that is at my level. I'm a bit limited regarding work space at the home! I'm mainly interested in e-waste - TVs, Printers, etc. I'm more interested in things that plug into a wall than things that are used in construction. I'm finding that rather than smashing the cereal boxes to get the prize, I'm having a good time actually taking things apart part by part, taking time to observe and learn just how they work, what does what, and how things that are broken can usually be repaired quite easily.
My current project is a BUNN-O-MATIC Coffee maker that I (with permission) took from a local university dining hall ("nice cafeteria"). I was pretty shocked at how the water tank had a 3 inch layer on the bottom of built up crap from the hard water, the thought that everyone was getting coffee from there...gross.
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