I have a confession to make. Copper prices have gone to crap so ive been cutting cords latley. I feel guilty about this because some wire and motor is going to landfill but its not worth my time because i have more valuable uses of my time.
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I have a confession to make. Copper prices have gone to crap so ive been cutting cords latley. I feel guilty about this because some wire and motor is going to landfill but its not worth my time because i have more valuable uses of my time.
If you don't have the time to break down a vacuum then why even curb shop for scrap in the first place? Unless you happened by it while driving through your own neighborhood. Seems an even bigger waste of time to me to look for scrap, only to collect the wire.
You want to check your state and local laws, but by picking them up or even cutting the cords you might be "taking possession" of them. Then by discarding the item, you could be littering or something else.
Copper will go up,maybe in a month or a year. Cut them an store them....
if i am out with a friend or in my x wifes nice car i will sometimes cut cords.if i cant fit what i find in the vehicle im in at the moment i discover it i will cut the cord.if the stuff is close enough to home i will go back for it later.
good comments,ive always done well on this stuff up until now, when i part out cars i usually just throw a few vacuum carcases in each one and get paid shred for the plastic and metal also, metal prices are way down and headed lower
believe it or not the main thing i am looking for when i curb shop are cardboard boxes i need for ebay and resale items, all of the scrap is just a bonus, i dont mess with console tvs or projection tvs anymore either
on my last run i found a box of aluminum cookware, 2 vacumms and a 32 can flat of coke in addition to my boxes, the old vacumms i found were in new vacuum boxes so it always pays to check boxes on the curb
To me there are two options: Take it or leave it.
The only time I ever cut cords is when it's something has no value other then the cord, and even then I ask if it's ok to just take the cord. I feel really bad when I cherry pick during curb shopping. The same thing with CRT's, I would never gut a TV on the curb. IDK, It just doesn't seem right to me.
I personally will cut a vacuum cord. There is a lot of plastic to get rid of with a vacuum, I just don't want to deal with it, but the cords add up quickly. I won't cut the cords of any other items. I always felt that there is the possibility that someone would want the tube TV . Usually anything other than a TV or vacuum with a cord will just go in the truck.
Your poll says "and leave them on the curb", although your post doesn't, which actually makes a difference. At your place, if you want to snip it, and toss it in shred(or elsewhere), it makes nobody any difference but yourself. To snip em off the curb is halfway to stripping a TV, or anything else, and leaving the carcass there
If you are looking for boxes, there are always a lot of folks giving them away on freecycle or craigslist. All sizes, too. If you feel guilty about it, maybe you should listen to your conscience. Why get greedy? I always had a policy to either take the whole thing or leave it for someone else.
Besides, I gave up curb shopping because it seems like 9 times out of 10 I go through $10.00 in gas for $5.00 worth of scrap after breakdown.
Sure there is plastic to deal with but why leave the motor behind? and there is other metal in the vacuum also.
I put some stuff out on the curb for pickup not long ago, I made sure I saved a nice sturdy box and put all the things I was willing to part with, that were taking up room, that I do not process myself in the box. I feel that if I am not going to try to make a buck on something I should give someone else the opportunity to.
The people who posted the flyer came by and picked up the stuff, that was great, but they left the box.
Now I know this must seem like no big deal to people who are picking up stuff, but so far as I am concerned, they should have taken the box as well. So now, I am not going to put anything else out for this particular company because so far as I am concerned they did a half ass job and are benefiting from my giving them free stuff.
So before anyone clips anything, or only takes part, or tries to cherry pick their pick ups, stop and think about how the person that put it out there for you is going to feel about this. It would have been easier for them to just throw it away in many cases, yet they saved it, and put it out for you. And now you want to pick and choose what you take and leave?
At the very least you can pick up even the stuff you don't want, and drop it at the dumps. It's the difference between conducting yourself in a noble way, or the drive by money grabbing I so often see in the cut throat scrap business. I know that I might ruffle some feathers with this post, and I realize that people who are cherry picking are still working very hard and trying to make their business their living. I also realize that you might not think about things through the eyes of the person you are picking up junk from, but you might want to think about it now.
Also think about this, if you advertise that you are picking up junk, and clearly state you pick up certain items in your flyer, then you should be taking all those things at the very least away. If you put up a flyer and state you only take such and such items, and specifically mention you clip chords, then that's one thing, but if you are actually advertising by flyer or otherwise that you pick up junk, and you leave what you think of as junk behind, then what you are doing is wrong.
Scott
I only cut cords off tube tv's and carpet cleaners. The carpet cleaners are nasty sometimes with old dirty water left in there so I leave it at that.
But, I will take a vacuum with the cord, and sometimes not always a vacuum without a cord I may leave for the next guy.
I do grab all the projection tvs i come across, I like stripping them. but the standerd crt i cut the cord and keep on going.
Thats just me...
By me most people will just smash the back of the tv and just take the yoke and leave all the aluminum and wires. Anyone else notice this?
Not around me. The scrappers around me like leaded glass I guess. Lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by scrapping4ever
All the time and they sit on the curb for 2-3 weeks until the city cleanse them up. sad sight.Quote:
Originally Posted by scrapping4ever
I have to wonder how long your cities, counties or states will allow this type of behavior to continue. In California, you are not suppose to have any e-waste outside in the rain for example, for extended lengths of time because the rain water will wash heavy metals and toxins into the sewer and thus the water supply. Smashing CRTs to remove part of them is the most idiotic act I have heard so far. If people understood what exactly they were doing, they wouldn't do it. Or at least I hope they wouldn't.
I hope when the day comes where stricter laws are passed preventing people from leaving junk on the curb for people to pick up, the people who are breaking things and clipping chords don't show up here and complain about the new laws.
If everyone conducted themselves in an honorable way, there would be no need for laws, and because lawmakers never conduct themselves in an honorable way, you can expect the laws, when passed, to be excessive in their scope.
Scott
My yard will take vacuums whole for shred, even with the cord cut.
Smash an grabbers of tvs...I like to call that the tweeker method. An it seriously pisses me off. Environment yea..upsets me. What upsets me more is I could be walking my dogs an they step on that, or me, or my niece, or my wife, etc.
So yea..smashing tvs..not cool. v:)
sirscrapalot - Not a fan of smash an grabbers.
There are a few dumpsters by me that I like to check out a couple times a week. They always yield at least a few goodies. Lately though, I find myself spending just as much time cleaning up the mess other scrappers have left behind. I don't want anyone driving by thinking I'm the one doing it. Better that they see me cleaning up the mess.
If it gets much worse with "crack head" scrappers, I'm gonna have to stop apartment shopping.
I used to own a grocery store, and wouldn't lock up my dumpster at night because I new people were able to pull things out that they could use. Even though my insurance stated specifically I was suppose to keep it locked up, I just couldn't bring myself to keep people who acted in a respectful and honorable way out of my dumpsters. I don't like throwing food or useful things away, but I could only give dated items to the local food banks, and by law couldn't give away what otherwise would be good food if not for the law, to anyone or any organization.
So I left my dumpsters open, at one point I even had one of the people looking through my dumpsters come in during the day and give me a book of food stamps someone had accidentally dropped in the garbage.
Then someone started showing up and literally digging things out of the dumpster, and throwing it all over the ground, night after night. I had to have an employee every morning clean up the stinking, rotting mess off the pavement before it got too hot. Garbage attracts flies, flies carry all kinds of nasty things not to mention the fact that once flies are drawn, they start coming inside which affects business and the list goes on and on.
I tried putting up a sign asking to please not throw the trash on the ground, but it continued. Finally I had to lock them up, but even then someone was cutting my locks off and doing the same thing all over again. I resorted to spending a few thousand to get cameras set up outside the building, aimed at the garbage containers and finally caught the person who was doing it, but from that point forward because there were already police reports, etc, I had to keep it all locked up.
In a world where everyone is trying to survive and make ends meet, there will always be some that act in a way less than honorable. But it's my personal belief that if people acted in a more honorable way, other people would be far more likely to want to help, even if it's just leaving a garbage can open.
Scott
I just got .22 a pound for 372 lbs elect motors price down .08 cents from last time! And stainless steel was only .35 a lb! Was .60 last year at this time.
By me cord cutters hit first and quickly, but then the appliance with cut cord gets picked up as well. As the price of steel has dropped things are staying curbside longer but they do get taken! As for the CRT's and TV's cords cut first. Then smash and grabbers take what they want and leave the rest. I would rather have them (the homeowner) toss the CRT's in the trash, instead of finding them broken all over someones yard!
I use to break down vacuums but not any more . the plastic around the motor is to hard. and you cant get it open. ill take the vacuum but cut the cord and throw the rest in the shred pile
I'm pretty opinionated about scrapping and ethics. Sry but to me any one who takes the gravy and leaves the grits is simply a scrounger not a scrapper.
some of our yards are very leniant about what they accept. so vacuums and such dont last long because the thing can be scrapped as is easily.
.22 cents for motors or .10 cents for vacuums as shred. Plus you pull the motor out and they might not take the rest of the carcass as shred.
$1.10 for 5 pound motor vs $1.50 for a 15 pound vacuum as-is.
pull the motor and you are losing money, exact same thing with other small appliances
I agree with you 100%Quote:
Originally Posted by olddude
And for the record, I voted no.
right now the poll stands at 24 yes/maybe vs 8 no's , 3 to 1 in favor
I go a slightly different route. I pick up the vacs, small appliances, TVs, etc etc and bring them home, cut off the cords, and then when I get a decent load of them I call up another local scrapper who comes & gets them & who brings me all the computers he finds (and the guy seems to have uncanny luck at it!) that he used to turn in as shred.
Win, win for everyone.
Well, except for the yard that used to get his cheap computers, I suppose!
"taking possession" by cutting cord. If so this in bullsh*t. Its ending up in the landfills anyways.
If I am going to stop, I am going to take the entire whateverthehellit is!
But, bless me father for I have sinned. My last smash-an-grab was the middle of the last century.
for your penenance, Bro, you must be extra nice to CoolBeanBear, Meclottalinks, Fudge42flavors and Sirscratalotofdodo
but but but father, that seems very extreme. can I jus do like ... 2 Our Fathers and 40 hours of cleaning pews ... ur sumptin I gotta chance of doing o:)
Or...you could write 75 times out on paper.."Sirscrapalot is sirscrapalotisscrapalistic!" An consider yourself forgiven.
:p
Sirscrapalot - Less qq more pewpew!