Scrap-metal recycling grows as economy shrinks

[gateley]

Individual sellers of scrap metal say the rising costs of gas and other commodities have prompted them to look at old toys and appliances – even toasters – as a potential source of income.

"Five years ago, people would throw away their bicycle in the trash," Greg Brown, owner of Raleigh Metal Recycling, said. "Today, you could bring your bicycle here, and we'll give you cash for it. We literally take pots and pans, old fans, a toaster oven." Individual sellers seem increasingly motivated by tough economic times, Brown said. <snip>

Glenwood Pair said he sold some spare parts for gas and funds for the effort to "try to make it to the next day." <snip>

Raleigh Metal Recycling has added new employees, expanded its hours and added new lines, Brown said.
Larry Gore found himself in those lines, trading in three batteries.

"This is 15 bucks, $5 a battery," he said. "Every dollar counts, that's right. Every penny helps."

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3187137/

[Angela Shelley]

1. Great! Now we can make money cleaning up our yard!

:-)

[eppur_se_muova]

2. And metal THEFT for scrap is growing even faster. nt

[onethatcares]

3. I read that cast iron is now paying 348.00 a ton

that's quite a lot for cast iron, used to be around 100.00 or less. Guess the Chinese need to stimulate thier economy with jobs and manufacturing like we USED to.

[DainBramaged]

4. Ain't that the truth

I wonder, is an ounce of pennies worth more as scrap for the copper than it is as money?


http://www.scrapindex.com/metal/copper/

http://scrapindex.com/

[Blue Diadem]

5. We've done that for years with aluminum cans. We recently got $85 for 4 large bags of crushed cans.

DH called two places, one was paying .20 less per pound, so it's best to check various places. The place we used was paying $.85 a pound. It helped pay for our day at Cedar Point..otherwise we wouldn't have been able to afford to go. My former son in law just took in a load of the scrap metal that was laying around their barn and got $300.

It's sad that it takes economic problems to bring people to do this type of recycling. It's a much better alternative than the landfill.

and it's especially sad that our country is in such a bad way that people are resorting to stealing metals to scrap.