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JWRAY
Penny Collector Member
USA
378 Posts |
 Posted - 04/08/2010 : 23:23:07
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Recently I took my class (an environmental science course) of students to the local landfill for a tour to gain an understanding of the process.
While I have been there before, I got an extra little tour to poke around at the end and I have never been so frustrated in my life. All around poking out of the covered hills of garbage were shreds and scraps of metal, screws, nails, rebar pieces, odd cellphones and ipod pieces, batteries, literally tons and tons of value just buried. And not only does no one take it, recycle or reuse it, but once its in the door, it is ILLEGAL to remove it. What crap. I cannot wait until the day these sites are used as the mines of the future.
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MOVING SALE!!! Selling Copper Cents 1.4 shipped - in limited quantities PM me and we'll talk. |
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wolvesdad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2164 Posts |
Posted - 04/08/2010 : 23:41:36
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hahaha.....
Cities are built around these dumps...... in poor countries. But yeah, people go out and 'mine' the recyclable stuff.
But with glass and nails and STD's and icky stuff..... those 'cities' aren't anything to be envied! |
"May your percentages ever increase!" |
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cesario
Penny Pincher Member
129 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2010 : 02:46:36
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Yeah, it's amazing what people throw out.
I know this one guy that had a major hoarding problem. Piles of Newspapers, bottles, even scrap metal he'd find in neighbor's garbage cans.
One day, his family decided to "help him out" and threw out craploads of perfectly recyclable stuff. Yes, they went straight to the dump instead of going to the recycling/scrapyard and doing it that way. His father didn't want to go thru the effort of sorting it out from what I heard. They hauled off like two truckloads of scrapmetal alone.
A couple days later, he committed suicide. I'll spare you the gory details, but I can say that they had to rely on dental records to ID his corpse. |
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cpthnsolo
Penny Sorter Member
50 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2010 : 09:45:05
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quote:
Originally posted by JWRAY
I cannot wait until the day these sites are used as the mines of the future.
It's going to be a while before that happens but rest assured it will happen one day. Thankfully though far less metal makes it to the trash these days. In South Orlando I think it's safe to say that 90% or more of the metal placed at the curb is picked up by guys like me. Heck I typically see two other scrappers on my runs now  .
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wayne1956
Penny Pincher Member
177 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2010 : 11:11:50
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| I do not understand why landfills (or rather the entities that control them) will not allow people to go in and recover recyclables, especially if they sign a waiver not holding the entity liable. |
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wolvesdad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2164 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2010 : 20:35:26
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because it is down right dangerous, waivers don't hold up when you knowingly let someone hurt themselves.
Spent condoms, broken glass, used insulin needles, carcasses of dead pets, etc are all thrown in the trash. It just isn't worth it,
Recycling should be handled before the dump, not after when everything is all mixed up and contaminated. |
"May your percentages ever increase!" |
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JWRAY
Penny Collector Member
USA
378 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2010 : 21:53:04
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| Yeah it is a combo of risk vs reward. THe risk: liability to the landfill, the reward: nothing, they really dont care if you get some value off the junk they bury. Now if there were some system that they could get value out of the junk, then maybe. But the guy I talked to said it was off limits period. If a garbage truck dumped 50 brand new plasma screen tvs on the ground, not even the employees could touch them due to the strict regulations. |
MOVING SALE!!! Selling Copper Cents 1.4 shipped - in limited quantities PM me and we'll talk. |
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Flbandit
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
851 Posts |
Posted - 04/10/2010 : 15:18:08
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| I ran across a couple of big electric motors while dumping steel at the scrap yard one day. I asked the attendant if I could take them and he let me. I don't think I was really supposed to, but he didn't care. |
Are you throwing that out? |
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mj74
Penny Sorter Member
USA
35 Posts |
Posted - 04/12/2010 : 01:41:12
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| Here as soon as it hits the ground it becomes property of the dump. A couple of days ago I was there droping off some trash,andI saw this guy backing his truck up to unload some electronics. I went over,and asked him if he was just going to get rid of what he had,and he said yes,so I asked him if I could have it. He said sure,and loaded it into the back of my truck. I got three computer monitors,two computer towers,a printer,and some cords/wires. :) |
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Bluegill
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1964 Posts |
Posted - 04/12/2010 : 13:02:12
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quote:
Originally posted by cpthnsolo
quote:
Originally posted by JWRAY
I cannot wait until the day these sites are used as the mines of the future.
It's going to be a while before that happens but rest assured it will happen one day. Thankfully though far less metal makes it to the trash these days. In South Orlando I think it's safe to say that 90% or more of the metal placed at the curb is picked up by guys like me. Heck I typically see two other scrappers on my runs now .
It's the same here. If you put metal out to the curb it is almost always gone by morning.
I agree land fills are a lot less metal than back in the day. 
October 1942. "Scrap and salvage depot. Butte, Montana." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee for the Office of War Information.
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The Landfill
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