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I try to get a bike ride in every day as my work schedule permits.

I've been picking up scrap such as lead wheel weights, nuts and bolts, aluminum cans, S hooks, broken tools, etc. You wouldn't believe the number of live ammo rounds I've picked up......

Sort them in buckets in the garage. On the average I'm picking up a pound a mile (in a city over 460,000 population).

I rotate my routes and it seems to take a week for a route to generate another pound per mile. It is almost an endless supply.

Like eddy currents, there are places in turns and intersections where pieces gather and no longer travel from tire strikes. I get them early Sunday morning when there is no traffic.

Larger items that are worth the gasoline I'll return to fetch in the truck.

These buckets supplement my other scrappings.

I occasionally do the same thing. What I do is place the largest plastic bottle with the top cut off that I can in the slot where the water bottle goes on my bike. That way I can put the heavier stuff like the wheel weights and bolts in it without weighing down my pockets. If I find more than the bottle will hold then I put the overflow in the pockets of my cargo pants. Can't have too many pockets.

This is kind of an interesting post. I assume that you guys bike along busy roads that 'regularly' get things tossed out. How small do you guys go? I can assume that crushed cans and such can be worth while, but being able to pick up lead weights while biking is difficult while trying not to lose track of the road.


Also have you ever gotten negative comments from drivers or people on your routes. I can imagine some people yelling trash picker or bum.

Please keep this thread going.

Once in a while I had some jerk ass teenagers say something. I always wear dark sunglasses and a helmet, plus this is a conceal carry state should someone really nasty try to hurt me, nuff said............... They should thank me since many of the screws and shards of steel I gather flatten tires. Just look in the souvenier bin at a tire shop and you'll be amazed.

I stay up on the sidewalk and wait until cars have passed to fetch something. I carry plastic bags from the grocery store and hang it from the handlebar. The smallest are screws, often there are some big lugs with nuts that look like they broke off a truck. With crushed cans I'm able to fill the bag in a few miles. Sometimes I have to double bag to keep it from tearing.

I have got quite a few wrecked tie down strap ratchets and their hooks. Run over extension cords, dented steel and aluminum hub caps, wiper blades.

Spark plugs, sockets and wrenches, forgotten in motor compartments find their way to the gutter. Sometimes there are crushed copper fittings from plumbing and AC repair trucks. U-joint pieces, exploded clutches from car AC systems, you name it!

Today's ride was about 7 miles. I found a huge lead tire weight that must have come from a truck, looked like a small banana.
Also gathered a handful of car size lead wheel weights, another handful of nuts and bolts, and a pound of aluminum cans. Had to pass up a steel brake pad that was too far out into traffic at an intersection.

If you guys would like an itinerary of the various things found on future rides let me know and I'll list them all!

I've recently found that bike riding in the semi-rural roads in the big city and has been much more sucessfully at getting my primary target - aluminum cans. These areas also have guard dogs without leashes, and I got surrounded by several of them the other day and the Lord delivered me from them somehow. I need to always carry my knife and more importantly some readily available wasp spray.

I have not seen much of anything else like you have mentioned on your route worth scrapping however. In the big city, the streets have been pretty clean in the middle to upper middle class neigborhoods. My discovery has been that the opposite is true for the poorer neighborhoods and semi-rural outskirts. Maybe an obvious truth for you old-timers, but a new wrinkle in my brain.

In my new semi-rural areas, I have been waiting for the ridicule from drivers but have yet to get any abuse as of yet in a month of doing it. I got my first rejection at a baseball/softball park the other day, going through the trash barrels in the parking lot. The guy was courteous, and a little bit on the slow side, when I asked why I couldn't be there he had no ready response, lol.

This morning I took a five mile stretch, down one side and back the other and got 10 pounds of material. This is a very busy road during the week. It is also an outlet from a highway. The Sunday light traffic allowed me to get onto a light pole island between the lanes that ran about 50 feet and it was covered in bolts, nuts, washers, and wheel weights.

Got a smattering of aluminum cans but the sheer weight comes from heavy steel bolts and wheel balancers. Had to triple bag the load to keep it from tearing open!

When Summer is here and the sun is up at six in the morning I ride through tire repair store lots and there are always plenty of lead weights laying in the parking lanes, probably from the dropping of tires. Also, fast food drive throughs usually have spilled coins no one bothered to get out of the car to retrieve.

Just started a new job on the railroad in Philadelphia area. OH MY WORD... its a scrap metal paradise. NOT only do we ride the Right of Way which is a pleasant metal ground but the CRAP these scumbags throw onto the railroad property is unbelievable. Houses in Philly back right up to railroad property and why be civilized and orderly when you can just dump your trash out your back door onto someone elses property.
If I can't scrap 30lbs of metal per half mile I'm not even trying. The aluinum cans and the metal spray paint cans the taggers throw down is unbelievable. I found a certified and steal sealed green/silver Oxygen tank which is the only thing I've taken so far since I'm still in training. Just lying on the side or the tracks. Can't wait to be cut loose. On the other hand it is disgusting what people throw out and have no regard for what it does or where it goes.
I'll keep you posted with my results too. Keep on Scrappin!

rambo_k9,

Since you've joined this forum I've always found your exuberance toward scrapping very infectious!

Your posts make me want to dig for junk (urban mining). You really do enjoy it don't you?

rambo_k9 wrote:Just started a new job on the railroad in Philadelphia area. OH MY WORD... its a scrap metal paradise. NOT only do we ride the Right of Way which is a pleasant metal ground but the CRAP these scumbags throw onto the railroad property is unbelievable. Houses in Philly back right up to railroad property and why be civilized and orderly when you can just dump your trash out your back door onto someone elses property.
If I can't scrap 30lbs of metal per half mile I'm not even trying. The aluinum cans and the metal spray paint cans the taggers throw down is unbelievable. I found a certified and steal sealed green/silver Oxygen tank which is the only thing I've taken so far since I'm still in training. Just lying on the side or the tracks. Can't wait to be cut loose. On the other hand it is disgusting what people throw out and have no regard for what it does or where it goes.
I'll keep you posted with my results too. Keep on Scrappin!

Way to go Rambo. Americans are so fat, dumb and happy. It's all starting to blow up in their bloated faces.
A fun read is "The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving". A real study on lazy American's waste and foolishness.

Thogey wrote:rambo_k9,

Since you've joined this forum I've always found your exuberance toward scrapping very infectious!

Your posts make me want to dig for junk (urban mining). You really do enjoy it don't you?

Thanks Thogey!!! Very much appreciated. As silly as it sounds I really DO enjoy it. Three reasons... #1 I have no mechanical skills to build things.. But I love tearing them apart. #2 The money is great, #3 I'm a tree hugger to a certain extent and can't stand to see stuff going in the trash/landfill that doesn't belong there! Urban mining is a Classic and I hope you dont' mind me quoting it. I'll be posting pics of what goes on in and around the railroad as far as scraping. You'll be amazed.
Several people have motivated me on this board so I'm glad to help. Remember METAL = MONEY!!!... Thanks again.

CrazyTom wrote:A fun read is "The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving". A real study on lazy American's waste and foolishness.

I have that book and have been trying to read it for several weeks. I am only on pg 29 but most of that is because I have a lot happening and don't get reading time till afer 10. Then I pick up the book and can't keep my eyes open after a few pages.

So far I am only slightly impressed. He has a few good war stories but mostly he talks about pulling food from the dumpster. That is something I will never do, also he hinted about cooking road kill.

I am sure it will get better as I get deeper into it.

cyberdan wrote:

CrazyTom wrote:A fun read is "The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving". A real study on lazy American's waste and foolishness.

I have that book and have been trying to read it for several weeks. I am only on pg 29 but most of that is because I have a lot happening and don't get reading time till afer 10. Then I pick up the book and can't keep my eyes open after a few pages.

So far I am only slightly impressed. He has a few good war stories but mostly he talks about pulling food from the dumpster. That is something I will never do, also he hinted about cooking road kill.

I am sure it will get better as I get deeper into it.

Read it for the social commentary. I corresponded with the author a long time ago and even gave him a tip. Back then I noticed a lot of car was vacuums were left unlocked at the dust bin compartment. I always found them full of coins along with the cigarette butts.

just a thought for the bicycle riders.....what about carrying a long handle (golf club?) with a strong magnet on the end to pick up the nuts, bolts etc...without having to get off the bike.

I took 2 old file cabinets from my work to the scrap yard this week and got $34 for them!

What kind of reaction do you get bringing in nuts and bolts to the scrapyard? Do they look at you as if you're "nuts"? Just wondering how you do it.

The nuts and bolts are mixed in with all the other steel. Usually in a cardboard box. Or let's say I had a dented steel hub cap, I'd pour all of the small stuff into it like a dish, etc. I've also filled empty tins that welding rod comes in. The can is weighed right along with the nuts and bolts. The recycle yard here in Mesa has a small scale and can handle 20 pounds of steel without making you drive on the truck scale.

As for the magnet on the end of a stick, it wouldn't get me the cans and I prefer two hands on the bars. There is a lady in this town that I've seen going around in a battery powered wheelchair. She has one of those trash grabbers and from her chair she grabs cans and puts them in a bag. Very proud of her for doing what she can to support herself.

when I was at the scrap yard last week I saw 2 guys scrapping a 5 gallon bucket of old, bent, rusty nails.

bman wrote:when I was at the scrap yard last week I saw 2 guys scrapping a 5 gallon bucket of old, bent, rusty nails.

What do you think they would get for that...? Cause, you know I'm crazy about free money. Everytime I get caught at a red light I have to look down and see what I can see...always something metal on the ground or on the median strip!

I'm getting 9 cents a pound for steel.

CrazyTom wrote:I'm getting 9 cents a pound for steel.

What was the last load like you took in?

My last load was 160 some pounds of electric motors, got 22 cents a pound.

Usually I have a little of everything, some brass, aluminum, wire, cans, copper, steel..... The road metal averages 10-20 pounds a week. The lead wheel weights are 10 cents a pound. I wait until I have at least 10 pounds of them, about the size of a shoebox.

The bulk comes from my job. The road metal keeps me in bike tires and inner tubes. I'm averaging 50 bucks a load every other week. The scrapper is near by so gas and time is not an issue.

TheJonasCollegeFund wrote:What kind of reaction do you get bringing in nuts and bolts to the scrapyard? Do they look at you as if you're "nuts"? Just wondering how you do it.

When I get small pieces I put them in 5 gallon buckets and save them until I pick up a washer or dryer. Then after I strip these machines of their copper wire and electric motors I will load them on my trailer and dump all the 5 gallon buckets I have of small pieces into the washer/dryer drums. It is amazing how much you can dump into a washer drum, and if you fill it up that puppy is extremely heavy.

Did another 5 mile route today (10 for me round trip). Found many of the same things but today I also got a heavy brass screw cap from a diesel fuel tank.

Did the same route today as last Sunday. Didn't get as much metal this go 'round but a big chunk of chain and a brake pad brought up the average.

Also found a nice new pair of mechanics gloves, about 50 yards apart from each other. They are now in the washing machine!
Got a clad quarter and a zinc penny too.

CrazyTom wrote:Did the same route today as last Sunday. Didn't get as much metal this go 'round but a big chunk of chain and a brake pad brought up the average.

Also found a nice new pair of mechanics gloves, about 50 yards apart from each other. They are now in the washing machine!
Got a clad quarter and a zinc penny too.

Tom, your journal entries on this thread are interesting and inspiring. Please continue to pound the roads for many pounds of metal and then tell us all about it.