Why do people give their scrap away?

**SKWrapper** · 09-21-2018, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by miyamuto

A question to you who picks up scrap for free. Why do people give you their scrap? It is worth money so why dont they just take it to the scrapyard themself and make some money? Im trying to understand this buissness

So many reasons. Some negative, neutral and positive (hmmm.... i've been stripping a good deal of wires recently)

Because they don't know about it.

Because they DO know about it and the small amount of scrap they have - say a washer or dryer or stove isn't worth the time, physical work or gas to collect 7 or 8$ if it's a very heavy item. They know that they would take a loss by driving their one BBQ to the scrapyard since they might get 1 or 2$ for it.

They don't have a truck and don't want to pay to have it taken away - for example if you buy new appliances, the same people that deliver them will take away your old ones for a fee per appliance.

If they have a truck, they don't want to use it for that.

They are moving out and already have enough expenses and don't have time.

They are moving in or flipping a house or cleaning up after an eviction and have a dumpster rented (expensive) and they don't want to have to rent another one to throw away metal.

Bottom line it's a service. Taking away unwanted items - let's call it what it is - metallic garbage - isn't free, and large items are more costly to have removed by trash services.

Some people think all scrappers are all very poor and desperate and they want work done for free is another reason - "free scrap metal - gas line and electrical still attached, must be able to remove from basement etc..." nope. Sorry your scrap metal isn't worth it. Even if I were insured to un-install appliances, I wouldn't do it for free, insurance costs $$. I see CL ads like this all the time sit there and no one responds because no one is that desperate to do basically slave labor. Not everyone is this way tho - but it's one reason.

Sometimes people want to "pay it forward" - I know of a scrapper that doesn't scrap refrigerators because of the issue with removing the coolant legally, so he gives the refrigerators he "has" to pickup in order to get the other appliances to another scrapper that he sees with refrigerators on the back of their trucks.

Sometimes people are being charitable and just want to give to people even though the have plenty of means to remove the unwanted items themselves or pay to have someone else do it.

**auminer** · 09-22-2018, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by recyclersteve

So, for someone who works a full-time job and knocks down $100k/year, it isn't worth it for them to scrap."

Don't be so sure! My household tax filing was a good bit above the number you mentioned, and I still stop and clip the cord off of every TV and vacuum cleaner I see!!!

Just this week I had new refractory brick made and installed it in my fireplace myself. Saved easily 800-1000 bucks even after having to spend 17 bucks at Home Depot on a masonry blade for my skilsaw & trimming the edges of the panels a scoch.

But, yeah, I take my F-150 to get oil changes done. My one guilty vice.

**jimicrk** · 09-22-2018, 12:57 PM

About oil changes. Where I live you can get an oil change for only a few dollars more than it would cost for me to do it. I told my wife, son and daughter they were responsible for taking care of it themselves. Daddy's tired of working on cars. My son and daughter have jobs so they pay for it with their money.

Back on topic.

Most businesses where I go to work a service ticket have a back room where they put all of their junk. Broken chairs, old computers, broken phones, keyboards and the list goes on. Sometimes it's an out of sight out of mind situation but most people just have no idea what to do with it. I always ask and make sure they have my contact information.