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I went to the town dump today with my girlfriend. I have mentioned in the past that the swap shack which contains free stuff for the taking is a great place to get free scrap or junk for ebay. I also mentioned there was a big shipping container dumpster type thing. Up until now I have had no problem taking things from it. Today I was confronted by the only person who works at the dump who cares if I take things. There is usually only one guy working there and he just sits in a tiny little cabin and collects tokens for bulky waste. Hes a chilled out old dude who doesnt care if I take stuff from it.

Anyway, so this old hag of a lady informs me that I am not to rummage through or take anything from the scrap metal bin. It is basically a walk in shipping container. You can drop any e scrap off there for free you dont even need a dump sticker! I also learned from elsewhere the the TOWN PAYS SOMEONE to remove that stuff. Now there are tons of cords, whole computers, vcrs, and in general a significant amount of scrap metal in there. It takes about a month to fill up, and when it is full, someone comes by and picks it up and the town pays for it.

The whole idea is so that it can be recycled (because that's what it is disguised as) why in the hell cant I take stuff out that I can re-use? being a town resident and all... Wouldn't it make logical sense that the town would WANT me to take stuff from it? This smells incredibly fishy to me. The lady was already caught stealing from the scrap metal dumpster a while back and was forgiven for it. I was considering making an offer to take away all the stuff for free and use that to launch a start of my scrapping business. What do you guys think? Do I have any chance of making a go at this? Perhaps should I offer to put back 10% of what I make to the town? It's a small town, just 10,000 people approximately.

Do I have a chance to do this or does it look like "the powers that be" have things set up a certain way to benefit themselves. Aka working out a side deal with the guy hauling the stuff away.

The waste hauling should go out for public bid once a year. Find out approximately how much the other company is charging and charge less. Don't offer to do it for free or for a percentage of profits.

Simple solutions:

1) Save the scavenging for when the workers that don't care are on duty and don't do it when the old hag is around.

2) Advertise locally that you'll take electronics and do free pickups. That way you'll save people the work of hauling it to the dump themselves and you'll get the good stuff before anyone else has a chance to get it.

It makes sense for companies to charge for the service because of the labor, transportation and other costs involved. Not to mention they're mostly getting TVs and other materials that are costly to recycle properly.

Oh yeah I totally understand why they charge. It is costly to haul that stuff around and get rid of it for sure. Seeing as how I go to the dump, its about 3 miles from my house, and I live locally, I am much better positioned to make an offer and take care of this stuff. Nobody around here has been offering any service to pick up stuff for free so I think I may start doing that. It may even turn into a full time job. It would probably beat working at the gas station although its not just any gas station and my bosses are not just any bosses... and besides I am still hoping someone will bring in a stack of morgans for gas!!!

I know a lot of people probably wouldn't do what I plan to do full time either (especially in a upper middle class small new england town) I think I really should get onto this. Its amazing the stuff I have found in the E-scrap dumpster. Surprisingly there are a lot of very scrappable as is devices in there.

Pay her back: Dump TV's into the container.

after they have been gutted hahaha

Tantalar wrote:after they have been gutted hahaha

Even better!! Just make sure you assemble them back together with a few rocks thrown in for "weight."