Saved 950lbs of stuff from a landfill and made $300.

[bzzzt]

I've touched on it in the "Side Hustle" thread and mentioned it a few other times, but I collect scrap metal and make runs to the yard three to six times a year.

Most of it comes from work. I'm at remote sites all week and it's equipment that's being retired from service and is destined for a dumpster. Typically, there isn't room to put one near each site, so I'd have to drive 30-80 miles to use the one at the shop. So, it rides home in the back of the truck and I use the time I would've spent driving to disassemble it.

Prices for steel and copper are down by almost half compared to last year, but it's still "free" money.

List as follows (in lbs):

Steel - 80
Cast AL - 420
Batteries (lead acid) - 185
Housewire - 6
Housewire #2 (tinned) - 19
Copper #2 tubing - 5
AL (clean) - 64
Stainless - 59
Low grade wire - 21
Transformers - 80
Burnt wire (oxidized bare/motor windings) - 5

All of these items were located in cabinets which are being re-purposed for use on my car/equipment trailers.

My other hobbies may not be very Mustachian, but I give myself a pass for recycling and in-sourcing. ;)

[OddOne]

Badass on many levels! Free money works!

[jengod]

This is awesome. I sometimes see tempting roadside stuff, but it would all be small piecemeal amounts since my husband would think I'd gone extra crzy if I started stockpiling scrap metal at the house.

[Le Poisson]

Who pays for the used batteries? Around here I thought they were hazmat.

[Syonyk]

Who pays for the used batteries? Around here I thought they were hazmat.

Lead acid batteries are one of the most heavily recycled objects around - they're very nearly a closed cycle of materials.

[bzzzt]

This is awesome. I sometimes see tempting roadside stuff, but it would all be small piecemeal amounts since my husband would think I'd gone extra crzy if I started stockpiling scrap metal at the house.

If I had property instead of living in the 'burbs, I would definitely stockpile. A friend of mine has a few pickup bed trailers he's made out of scrap trucks (end up being free not counting time) and he just waits until it fills up and runs it in. He stores them out of sight behind his machine shed so it doesn't look like a hoarder house when people come over.

Who pays for the used batteries? Around here I thought they were hazmat.

Any scrap/materials yard. The lead is valuable and will only be going up in price after the last lead smelter in the country was closed last year due to ever tightening EPA regs. They're still more valuable as cores for new batteries, but this is the best way to get rid of them as the materials will be reclaimed.

Are you taking these materials and re-purposing them, or are you bringing most of the items to a scrap yard as raw materials?

I'm re-purposing the equipment cabinets, but the "guts" mostly end up as materials going for scrap.