Scrap Yard Won't Sell Scrap Metal!!!!

[Dax Hewitt]

What are the environmental standards like in the USA? 

In the UK at work we need to get waste transfer notes for everything. If we replace a customers machine and take their old one away we give them a transfer note and when it ultimately lands at the scrap yard they give us a transfer note, oil filter, air filter and waste oil from a service, waste transfer note, back at our shop the oil goes in the waste oil tank, the oil filter in to the filter bin after being crushed, the air filter in the general bin. Each bin emptied gets a transfer note. 

It's a royal pain in the bum. It seems accountability and liability are the main things in Buisines these days. 

[BillyBones]

I can only give an example of cars, but we have to have a title, if it is abandoned we gat what is called a salvage title. But we have to drain all fluids, the oil goes into a waste oil furnace along with diesel fuel, this blew me away and it may have changed but we were allowed to dump anti-freeze down the drain. Gas, well we need it for lawn mowers and such. But we do not have to have any kind of transfer paper work. Was a time when you had to take the engines out, so we peeled the roof yanked the motor and dropped them in the back seat. Then take it to the scrap yard, they take the title, copy your ID weigh it, and pay you. 

What i found odd is they want a copy of your ID with any scrap. I can see a car that may end up with a body in the trunk but how would they be able to tell for certain that was the pile of brake rotors i brought in?

[Dax Hewitt]

You have to take ID scrapping in the UK too and the money has to be transfered in to a bank account. Metal theft is a massive problem so the idea is this approach will cut down on it. 

There are definitely places that pay cash and falcify the records though going on the amount of the traveling community who come scrounging and the amount of stainless steel and copper cable that vanishes over night in things like the waste water industry. 

[BillyBones]

Most places here pay cash on the spot. I should have also said that the regulations vary from state to state. 

For a while here copper was high on the list of stolen metals. People would go into empty houses and buildings and rip out all the plumbing and wiring. Since the price has dropped i dont think they do it now but if you brought a lot of copper in, say #100+ you had to wait 2 weeks to get paid. What they did for those 2 weeks is a mystery though. 

[ThomasPowers]

Out here you don't even need a title to junk a car; just bring it to the junkyard and get paid.

[Chad J.]

When I worked for the scrap company, which will remain nameless but rhymes with faulter, we weren't allowed to officially sell scrap,  though I allowed it occasionally.  It was said it is because of the payment systems we used.   Liability also kept me from letting people dig through the scrap.   State laws require ID for any copper and for ease and uniformity we required ID for all sales, plus I hate scrap theives and that helps catch them.   We also scanned in every ID and had cameras at the counter and on the ATM.

[ThomasPowers]

Large companies tend to see individual sales as a pain; they cost more to process than they make in profit and there is the liability aspect too.  (I remember when I worked for a large Corp back in the 1990's and they told us "It costs US$50 to process a voucher; so don't submit one for less than that!")

I go to a local Pop, Son and Grandson scrapyard; selling to me costs them nothing but time they have to spend and the profit is compounded in that they don't have to load, transport and resell the scrap. They trust me not to be foolish for the liability and so far the worst injury I have had is a dog bite.  I didn't make a fuss over that, we cleaned it up with H2O2, I checked on the dog being up to date on it's shots and went back to picking out metal.  Keeping my source for great scrapmetal was way more important than any payout I could get---any big one would probably shut them down!

[Whiskeysup]

Dropped by a local tire shop yesterday after I noticed several coil springs in their scrap pile. Asked if I could buy them. Answer was no, it all goes to the scrap yard. I said I would pay more for them than he would get for the whole trailer full. I  went home without springs. Go figure.

[Daswulf]

Just because one said no doesn't mean they all will.  You could try body shops as well. They usually haul in their scrap (or have it hauled) as well but I'm sure at least one wouldn't mind parting with some springs. Try the smaller family owned shops. 

[SHC]

In my neck of the woods, if you’re looking for scrap metal then you’re a meth addict. 

Obviously that’s not always true. But we have addicts stealing and begging for scrap metal to sell for another fix. This leads to more crime, often violent. It’s rampant. So anyone asking for scrap is automatically met with distrust and hostility. I’m guilty of it, but it’s so bad here that I’m not even ashamed to say I’ve run people off my old property at gun point. When they’re twitching and smelling like burnt plastic, I want them to fear for their life when it comes to bothering me. The one you politely turn down is the one you find rummaging through your stuff later that night, and they’re the one who’ll put you down for the $5 in your wallet. 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I have an older retired guy that hauls all my scrap from my repair shop, and it’s kinda handy, because I can get rid of several tons of small engine junk every year

but if I’m looking for usable stock or material, I just let him know what I’m looking for and he just drops it off,

he does clean outs all over so he runs into all kinds of good stock, a couple years ago he was l hired to clean out a building and haul off the junk and found an anvil, rivet forge and some beat up old farm tongs, that he brought down here, since he knows I like blacksmithing,

most of the stuff he brings me is free but I paid him $200 for the blacksmithing stuff which is way more then he would have got at the scrap yard, so we both were happy, 

[ThomasPowers]

Some businesses are worried about the liability of people reusing used parts.  When we got the Oxy cylinders from the hydrotest facility we were required to cut them in two before we could remove them from the site to make sure nobody tried to use a failed gas cylinder for high pressures---we made propane forge shells from them for a SOFA gas forge building workshop; mine is still doing great after 20 years and a bunch of relinings!

[SHC]

ID is required here for reasons of theft, and it works. Back around ‘07 or ‘08, price of copper skyrocketed in North Carolina and you could hardly keep it. Some companies found it more cost effective to pay someone to guard their facilities overnight rather than replace their stolen copper. That is when many addicts started stealing it large scale. The ID requirements cut down on it and led to quite a few drug busts in a lot of cities.

Recently, two fellas working for a nearby city were busted selling brass water meters and scrapped copper plumbing, and they were caught because of the ID requirements.

Sometimes IDs aren’t required to catch a thief. A town I travel through occasionally in Mississippi, I pulled up to a gas station to fill up and was told the pumps were down. I asked what happened, they told me someone tried to steal some power lines. While they were live! It worked out for them about as badly as you can imagine. 

When I ran the sewer system for my local township, I caught a guy in our small scrap pile. He said he was just trying to do us a favor by getting it out of our way. Most of it was roadside trash, a lot of aluminum, but also a lot of burnt up pumps that cost more to repair than to replace, these are almost always cast iron cases with a lot of stainless guts and copper windings on the motors. He went to jail on several charges, not the least of which that he had to cut the lock to get into the property, which amounted to a federal trespassing charge. Somehow we ended up retaining his truck. I was told to just park it out of the way and someone would come collect it eventually, but no one ever did. 

[arkie]

Out in W. TX, where things are usually pretty flat along the road ROW's, copper thieves were fab'ing up double wheels on the rear tires of their PU trucks; an empty wheel on the outside.  They would cut the copper phone lines, wind the end on the empty wheel and drive down the ROW, spooling the wire off the poles.  Quick and dirty.  They could get a LOT of wire on a wheel.

[yves]

My coil springs come from the garage up the road where I get my car serviced. He keeps them for me when I ask him. 

[pnut]

Drats, foiled again. If it wasn't for those dastardly single buyer contracts I'd have gotten away with it too

Pnut

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Just find out what the other guy offers then offer $.05 more a pound than he does! 
 

 

[ThomasPowers]

If they have a signed "single buyer contract" then they should not be selling to other people even for more money...I, a clean, fine, upstanding young lad, would never suggest suborning their staff to keep an eye out for stuff I could use and doing deals "outside the gates".  Doughnuts, brown pop, blacksmithing lessons, I believe I have heard of unscrupulous folks having had success with these before.

Even better is the "Get It From The Source"  and talking with the people who have the stuff *before* it goes to the scrapyard.  I once gave our local Mechanic a bottle opener forged from an UNPLATED wrench as a gift.  He wanted to give me tons of scrap metal from their business in return. (Yes, *tons*!)

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Yes I agree Thomas but some contracts are rewarded on a yearly basis to the highest bidder or lowest bidder depending on the situation, 

So what I meant was bid $.05 per pound then everyone else and you’ll get the contract, 

also I know of contracts that have been broken half way through a year because someone came in an undercut or over cut  the current price… just sayin 

personally I bid ridiculously high on a job I really don’t wanna mess with and that works most of the time… but then… There’s always that one customer who don’t care…  And I get stuck doing it anyways lol, 

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

I was told that being a professional bladesmith meant selling your work and that *every* blade you make; you must be willing to put a price on it.  So I priced the ones I wanted to keep HIGH and they all went out the door fast!    I was also told that you don't sell your mistakes.  So other folks own my best work and I still own all my mistakes...

Now it's a hobby and a lot more relaxing.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

 I didn’t mean bidding my blacksmithing Thomas, that’s just a hobby for me too! 

I don’t think anyone would want to buy my forged projects anyways lol, 

I was talking about bidding repair jobs in my business, 

[Dax Hewitt]

On 1/11/2022 at 7:11 PM, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

personally I bid ridiculously high on a job I really don’t wanna mess with and that works most of the time… but then… There’s always that one customer who don’t care…  And I get stuck doing it anyways lol, 

I do that, an ex customer came on to me to do a job, they were one of the UKs biggest building and engineering contractors who I blew out because I got sick of chasing money. 

Apparently though I was the only person on their framework for this type of job so I quoted £500 for a £250 job money up front. They paid it. 

They came back the next year so I quoted £1000, money up front. They questioned the increase and I said "I told you last year I don't want to work for you"  they paid it. 

They came back year 3, £2000, same question, same answer. They paid it. 

Year 4 would have been £4000 but they never came back. The entire company went bust with debts of  7billion pounds. 

[Frosty]

Good job Dax! You got yours and weren't trying to collect from the bankruptcy!  

Hopefully word gets out and large companies hire you for outrageous sums. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Dax Hewitt]

I blew them out in the first place because it took me over 6 months to get paid the 50k they owed me. 

We had a contract worth 500k a year with company A, company B bought company A and payment went from 30 to 90 days if you were lucky. I had to keep working for them because it was a massive part of our income but only for a year or so whilst we developed enough other work to close their account and start legal proceedings to get the remaining 50k.

[Frosty]

Sounds about like the game alright. New owners seem to forget debt while trying to maximize assets, it's almost like they don't come with the purchase. 

I highly recommend you NOT accept contracts with the government. I worked for the state of Alaska for 30 years and it got to the point nobody would sell to us on a stock request, we had to provide a purchase order #. which are like a check. The state of ak doesn't even begin to process outlays until 180 days THEN give itself 180 days to cut a check. IF, that is, they don't need something clarified in which the process restarts. 

Frosty The Lucky.