Old traffic signals are worth hauling.

Yesterday I was given a large truck and trailer load of old traffic signals and brackets. The place that was about 2 miles from my home even had laborers and a fork lift to help load it all. Mostly scrap aluminum, some wire and some cast brass along with steel and lots of plastic. The three light signals (red, yellow and Green lens) are great man cave stuff so we kept about 5 of the good ones that stand at least four feet tall and scrapped the rest. The entire load of signals went as dirty aluminum but even though the load did not seem to be that big when the lights and the scrap steel were separated the dirty aluminum still brought $240 bucks. And about $45 more for the scrap steel. I was shocked when the guy handed me the cash after being paid nothing for dirty aluminum for a long time. The yard I sell to is currently at $100 a ton for shred steel.

Congratulations. I have to travel 45 minutes to find a stop light. There are three stop signs in the community within 15 miles of my ranch. When I was a principal, I had one wired in the cafeteria to let students know they were getting to loud. I am sure you could get better than scrap price by selling them to the school district. Just an idea.

Tried to sell them off, give them away or donate them but no one was interested. So they went to scrap. I can see where one in a small school setting would be cool but here in the big city people get mad and complain about just about anything. As innocent as it seems people nowadays would find something to criticize.

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Originally Posted by Patriot76

Congratulations. I have to travel 45 minutes to find a stop light. There are three stop signs in the community within 15 miles of my ranch. When I was a principal, I had one wired in the cafeteria to let students know they were getting to loud. I am sure you could get better than scrap price by selling them to the school district. Just an idea.

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The schools I supervised were between 850 - 1,000 students. If anyone wanted to criticize the decision, they were welcome to come in and supervise the lunchroom. We added them into many classrooms as the years went on and they became coffee shop talk with a great deal of support. Other recycled products included telephone booths for private reading centers and old saddles used for ride to read activities. Yes the teachers were creative.

My favorite was an emotionally disturbed teacher that rewarded his students at the end of the week with electronics to break down to find how they worked. That is how I got into scrap metal.

The controllers for traffic lights are worth while if you have the chance to acquire them. I buy them from the road commission here and they have some pretty nice boards inside. Most of the shells are Aluminum.