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I seem to score alot of aluminum off the side of the highway, big peices of stuff like a fender off a double axle trailer that weighed about 20 lbs. last Sunday.
The biggest thing I ever found was the front part of an aluminum dump truck bed that had been cut up and I guess fell off some other scrappers trailer. I was in a car and went back for with my truck but as you'd expect it was long gone.
I've seen quite a few things too. Mufflers, car parts, hubcaps, etc. It's a pretty dangerous thing to do on the highway though.
I went up in the mountains today to get a free trailer. Was running late so I didn't get them....but I saw numerous cans along the road.
Always finding stuff..from car parts to cans..even tools and cash.. It's one thing to see something "noticible" while driving in your truck, but to actually walk along the road, it's like being in a candy store.
Best place to pick bottles! Thats how I made money as a kid, the teens and alcoholics in small rural towns love throwing beer bottles at signs, its actually an art to be able to do it at 60MPH, used to have a friend who could throw it over the cab of a truck and hit a sign ay 60MPH, needless to say....alcoholic lol I never ever picked the whole ditches, just by the signs!
In Indiana, Road Crew is the big thing for community service when you get hit with a charge. However, they tend to bag up the trash and leave the bags on the side of the highway for a week or two until the county designates a day to pick them up. I have absconded with road crew bags for can sorting. Last time I did this I made well over 150 bucks.
I have found many items on the side of the road
I found a bumper to a 18 wheeler it weighed over 125 pounds and was all SS(was bent up)
I also found a SS bed cover for a truck (like F150) it was a double cover and weighed 100 pounds
I often pick up a muffler or 2, once I found an aluminum ladder and I live walking distance from an exit from a highway, sometimes I make it part of my route and pick up 5 or 6 lbs of cans in 20 minutes.
Found a 20" copper pipe just off the shoulder last time I had a flat tire.
Few yeas ago i saw a large pallet like crate with a big spool of bright copper something. just as i was getting ready to pull over i saw the owner walking along the shoulder from his truck.. I occasionally see the odd car battery and car part that was probably thrown from an accident, without one of those blocking trucks none of it is worth my life though.. The Cross Bronx in NY is a little dangerous for this kind of picking...lol..
Everybody seams to be talking about highways, but what about city streets. I will take different routs to places just to see what people put out by the curb. I know when most of the garbage needs to go out and I drive around and pick up anything worth while. I get a lot of appliances this way.
I also drive around on trash night and pick up anything worth while. A few nights ago I came across a house that had a central air unit, a 1,000ft spool of coax and 45lbs of extruded aluminum that I had to clean/prepare before scrapping. Sometimes, I will try and pick up free appliances and misc. metal items on craigslist but alot of it seems to be either a scam or other scrappers beat me to it. Goodluck!
I went out tonight and found a nice washer,cast iron firepit,a few sweepers I cut the cords on, alot of smaller misc. metals, atleast 200ft of extension cords, small bicycle and believe it or not I found a really nice JVC am/fm 3 disc cd changer stereo w/ nice bookshelf speakers. The stereo and speakers were in excellent condition and I hooked everything when I got home and it sounds great! Overall, not a bad night but would of liked to find more appliances.
Do you guys actually stop outside peoples house and go threw theyre trash?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob_B
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Originally Posted by Onee
Like many other divers, I don't go through dumpsters,but if there's a pile on the side of the road I have been known to stop.
Nothing wrong with that. If you actually did go through bins you would probably get a hell of a lot of scrap but someone would probably call the police.Quote:
Originally Posted by dherik
Picked up a full size fridge, and 2 mattresses on the side of a highway a few nights ago.
What do you do with mattresses?Quote:
Originally Posted by rca987
i was wondering the same thing
Cut them open with a razor blade or burn the cloth off. Now turn in the springs for scrap. DUH!!!!!
in suburban city streets...just got some aluminum screens, a snow blower, and a tv. not bad for my drive home from work.
seems like a lot of work for springs.
brings new meaning to the term "bitten by the scrap bug"Quote:
Originally Posted by Kris Kringle
Now I could see the box spring....I have removed the metal frame inside of one in an alley several times....Takes about five minutes if you know what you are doing
They take up alot of space and don't weigh anything, Felt kinda silly with a couple grand in my pocket beating out old box springs but whatever it takes I guess
those mattress springs are heavy guys they add up fast
Exactly what ozzy said. Metal is metal, bedbugs or no bedbugs. Besides, the likely-hood that bed bed bugs are on a mattress that has been sitting outside for even a day or 2 is not likely. Since bed bugs are like ticks, they need blood to survive, and I doubt they are sucking blood out of other little bugs to get by in hopes of being picked up by an unsuspecting scrapper. I learned this on a TV show called "Infested" lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeinreco
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Originally Posted by redcrossnj
Plus they make great grading tools for gravel trails!
Are the springs steel then? I always assumed it was cheaper shred quality.
As long as you don't live in the state of california, u should be ok. the curbside is public property, and when they set something out on the curb for garbage, they are forfeiting their ownership. I'll go through cans, in fact, because lots of cities are going automated, a majority of metal is hidden inside the carts. Around Christmas time especially, i went through one cart and got about 100lbs of christmas lights.Quote:
Originally Posted by Onee
You have to watch it with trash-picking though. Some communities are saying that once property is abandoned at the curb is is either the property of the municipality or the trash company. I don't know whether enforcement is a ticket or what.
Here on Long Island its common knowledge that if you put something at the curb it will get picked up. I get loads of monitors and tv's etc on garbage nights
I tryed stripping mattresses once. The metal seemed to be light, generated to much trash, and to much work for the little bit of money. Yard wouldn't take them unless completly striped down.
I have heard that the wire framed mattresses are good for burning copper off on.
He put something down on the ground to lift the mattresses off the ground a few inches & then laid all of the copper wire out on it & lit one corner & watched as it burnt from one end to the other.
This was at night in the country areas soes its safe.
Not to be rude but that is what shred is.It's steel.Quote:
Originally Posted by Backwell
The scrap yard I frequent have several people with stripped down mattresses on their load. I often see guys with 6-10 matresses springs stacked on their load. It seems like a big hassle that would generate a lot of trash. But I am sure after you have stripped a few, it would go fast.
It depends on where you live. In my city, by law anything placed on the curb between the sidewalk and the street becomes property of the city. Only the home owner is legally allowed to remove the stuff placed there. Anyone else picking up the stuff is liable to be arrested or fined. I might stop if I see something, but I won't search through a pile of stuff. I've been practicing my "I-didn't-know" look just in case.Quote:
Originally Posted by elitelawnteam1
Sort of, but not exactly. There are different categories of steel. Shred is on the lower end.Quote:
Originally Posted by scrapper321