Scrapping at the scrap yard

Does anyone do it? If you don't know what I'm talking about il try an explain. So I go to this yard I was recomended because I had about 500 lbs of printers so I go in an there's about 15 other scrapers all around the shred pile like camping out. Umprellas coolers radios going. So they weigh in with scrap dump it an sort threw the shred pile for anything worth more then shred load back on there truck. They weigh out now as in returning what the yard paid for it. Then take it to the non ferros area an resell. So the yards not looseing money but there getting free labor for there metal seperated an in the end make more. I never saw this before

Yup, I've seen that at a few yards, usually the bigger ones. I wouldn't do it as it would be a lot of effort for a little money. Some yards don't allow it due to liability.

I have never seen this as the yard like the extra value from people who dont k ow to pull say wires or copper piping ect. I am amazed that any sane yard would allow it because of that AND the liabilty they now have because you are "working" on their private property.

I've never seen it done but I've thought about it but I'm assuming in a way its considered stealing, isn't it?

Yeah, my yard doesn't like it either but one day the magnet was running and what had not been sucked up was about 20 3 ft. pieces of clean extruded aluminum

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Originally Posted by TheKid

I've never seen it done but I've thought about it but I'm assuming in a way its considered stealing, isn't it?

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It's not stealing because if they find say 5 lbs # 2 copper in the Shred pile the yard paid shred for it an there weighing out with it as in giving the yard there money back ( shred price) then reselling it to the same yard the yard can now sell it as #2 but if the scrapper never found it in the shred pile the yard wouldn't have either an it would have just got loaded on a trailer shipped to where ever the yard sells to.

I confess, I once grabbed an unstripped computer off the side of the shred pile, but my yard has a guy watching most of the time. They go in & grab anything that can be profitably broken down further & throw it in a separate pile. Once I pointed out a brass bedframe & headboard in the pile... the dude said, "No, that's gotta be steel." He walked over & checked it... brass. I said "Can I get a cut??", so he let me have a piece or two of it.

Mostly I try not to look as I'm unloading. It's too depressing.

Boy, what a twisted mess if OSHA and the IRS got their teeth into this one!! They're essentially doing contracting for the yard, paid on a piecework basis. I'm sure there are several books full of regulations that are being bent here!

I was at the yard this morning and saw a man unload 3 heat pumps that he had taken the time to cut up and remove the coils from but left all the copper, I started to take a pair of side cutters over there and get the copper off but before I could the lady in the weight shed sent down a few employees to cut it up. Its amazing the amount of money I could make if I could do this at my yard.