People who make a comfortable living tend to not bother with what they think of as a waste of effort profit/time wise. It feels good helping somebody else out while ditching things they don't want.
Individuals don't usually come into contact with enough scrap metal to bother recycling it themselves. Its not like there is any money scrapping their home PC once every 3 years and they probably just put their aluminum cans in the cities biweekly recycling bin rather then fill the garage up with bags of pop cans for that 2 times a year trip to the recycler (let alone feel like smashing those cans so they fit into their trunk).
Lots of businesses I worked at didn't care about profiting in their scrap, all they wanted was to get it out of the way so they can concentrate on what they are good at when times are good. When times got tough they would waste dollars chasing dimes.
Scrapping is a time consuming volume business where margins are not that great all things considered. For every day you find something valuable there are weeks you probably don't. Plus the scrap value of metals is tied to many factors out of your control.
Bookmarks