I love watching people throw away money. This photo shows a contractor dumping a refrigerator and a stove at the local transfer station. Unfortunately the transfer station frowns on scavenging...
http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/...psd8e9122b.jpg
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I love watching people throw away money. This photo shows a contractor dumping a refrigerator and a stove at the local transfer station. Unfortunately the transfer station frowns on scavenging...
http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/...psd8e9122b.jpg
Not knowing is always costly
talk to him next time if you can and offer to pick them up at his site next time, or get the # off the truck and call next time you see it happen
I wanted to cry the other day. I saw a 40 yard dumpster of office chairs and cubicles being dumped at the transfer station
Worse than that is seeing people dump whole frigs and washers and driers like that at the scrap yard. Sometimes it's not knowing and some times it's lazyness.
Looks like he also threw out a Garbage disposal. There goes a nice electric motor.
But if people didnt do that, where would i get all my stuff?
If you want to get the most scrap, work at your local transfer station, get paid to scrap! It's what I am doing currently and its flippen fun! Everything people throw away comes to me and I get paid by the hour while I am picking scrap out of the trash. Though some of the time you gotta wash the scrap off lol. Most of the time I double my pay check and sometimes more with just picking the scrap out of the trash at work lol. Not to mention people throw away some pretty valuable stuff that is NOT scrap but can be sold on Feebay. Yes they say no scavenging but if you work there they look the other way as long as it does not cause problems and the customers don't see it going on. A lot of people get weird about it and sometimes even call the main boss lol these people apparently have nothing better to do! I say its good for me and its good for the company and its good for the environment!
do they sort it at a transfer station? looks like half of the load is non-metal
It depends on the transfer station the one I work at sorts the "white goods" like refrigerators and stuff it all goes in a roll off dumpster and then is sold to a contractor for about half the market value lol.
Most of the contractors i know, always say time is money, and i guess for them it is. if your bidding on a job ya want in want out quick as possible. And i'm sure liability could be an issue about letting somebody on the jobsite thats not on the contractor payroll.homeowners might not care for it. The time is money thing does lead to a lot of waste, the old school guys would use up the scrap stuff to try to save on material, lot of them just go grab another sheet to cut, quicker than dealing with the scrap stuff.
just wondering about the transfer station in the usa if this rule applies or not.
All items belong to owner until its unloaded and on council ground/transfer station property.
I have used this law plenty of times in New Zealand.Is this the same in the usa?
I see the same truck 2-3 times a month at my scrapyard dumping a whole big box truck worth of appliances into the shred pile. They don't strip motors, compressors, or even wire. I think they may be from an appliance store, and they're just getting rid of the old appliances that they are taking away after delivery of new stuff.
I would have to guess between 20 and 30 appliances every time I see them. I wonder how many times they do that?
I approached them and asked why they didn't strip the appliances, and suggested that at that volume they were leaving a ton of money on the table. They said they didn't have time to worry with it. I asked if they would be interested in letting me come in and take what I want, and I would do a 50% split with them, and I would pay them their share on the spot. They said they didn't want to fool with it.
Broke my heart, I tell ya'.
you get hurt processing there scrap and they are liable for it, i understand the reasons why we get turned away so much. What about if you outright buy it from them and haul it off for them. Cut there man hours and overhead completely out of the equation. That might get there attention. But even then its hard to trust someone you haven't done business with before.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfwerx
I need an answer, who was doing the filming and where??Quote:
If only they weren't filming...
Quote:
Originally Posted by jghilino
Yeah I can definitely understand what you're saying. They just didn't seem interested in anything, though. I'll keep talking to them, get to know them, and hopefully I'll be able to take a crack at that stuff one day.
probably surveillance cameras. the transfer stations near me all have cameras everywhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
Exactly.Quote:
Originally Posted by MattInTheHat
When I walk into the office to weigh in they have a bank of monitors taping everything going on. I think there are 12 different views, and one of them is right where we back up to unload.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
The yards around here have as much surveillance equipment as a Las Vegas casino. You pick your nose and they'll see it.
I make sure to pick it after going to the scale for the first time!
A lot of times these guys are just pulling away someone elses old appliances from when they purchase new ones. We have a big chain up here called P.C. Richard and sons and i see their trucks all the time at the local yard just tossing fridges stoves etc. in the shred pile. They really don't care about whats in them they are just about making a quick buck, they even leave cords on.I think their motto is"deliver a new appliance dump the old one get paid and repeat"Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfwerx
You can always offer to buy it from them for a little less than what they are selling it for, and point out that they do not have to spend the time or fuel to take it in. And then it is yours and there are no liability issues.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfwerx
I can see how it might not be worth it for some haulers with big trucks to mess with recycling. Is they have to drive across town to a scrap yard after the dump for just $50 worth of metal it might not be worth it when they could be starting the next hauling job and make $800. Storage would be another factor, if a hauler doesnt have a place to store their recyclables it probably isnt worth it for them to recycle just a couple of items at a time.
The last time I was at the dump transfer station I asked the guy next to me if I could have his nice bike and shop fan that he was throwing away. He said yes so, I loaded it up into my truck. A little while later one of the employees said that Im not supposed to do that and if the supervisor saw me he would ask me to take it out. The employee was just telling me the rules but, let me slide that time. He also said if I ever want to take someone else's items I would have to do it outside of the dump.
So, for whoever wants to get stuff from the dump perhaps you could ask the owner of the item to meet you outside of the dump and do the transfer there and give him a couple of bucks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wayne1956
Yeah, I would do that, but I just plain couldn't handle the amount they've got. If I had warehouse space, or something, I would consider doing that.
Self-storage unit,Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfwerx
It seems for some reason a lot of people don't like storage units. To me it's a great cheap way to store bulk. Many times you can use their dumpster also (not for a whole household worth of stuff) but that helps also. It's a great "next step" if you out grow your garage or live in an apartment complex. If you can't cover 30-50.00 a month, maybe it's time to reevaluate how effective you are. I'd never pass up on items because of "no room".Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
Yeah, that's my next step. I'm still a little-player in this biz (partly by desire, truth be told), but I'm slowly growing. The whole scrapping thing mostly started as beer and gas money for me, but I keep finding little ways to grow and improve.
Edited to add: In this specific case, though, I would need some big space. And, physically, I'm not sure I can sling that many appliances right now... getting over shoulder surgery.