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I saw a you tube video on this lady, dated 7-8 years ago, a local news piece, which said she gathered an average of 900 lbs. of aluminum cans a month. I think there is no way she could have actually collected this many off the road (which is her primary method, in a a truck) -- no way. I think the surrounding community must have been donating cans to her for the pool (which was her goal). Right now I average about 7-8 lbs a week, mostly by skimming dumsters, not actively slicing all the bags I see (maybe one or two a day).

I saw another youtube video where one guy boasts of his big score of 700 cans in one hour and said he was going to have a follow-up video on tips on how to do this, which never was published.

So, does anybody want to spill the beans on how you can get the big scores? I've had some at the beach, and some mid-level scores in the dumpsters, but in the big city that I'm in, there is no way I can ramp things up without dedicating a whole day of biking and sliming my way through trash, which I refuse to do at this point. In general I work discreetly to maintain some sense of dignity.

Any thoughts?

We got caught up in a traffic jam on I-40 in August. For about 10 miles, west of Kingman AZ, I was looking out the window at thousands of cans, bumpers, running boards, hubcaps, mufflers, and other metal debris.

It was murder!

Welcome to the forum MetalMan. Currently I collect alum. cans in the breakroom at my workplace. We fill up a 50 gallon bag every week. Also, I have friends and family save cans for me. Per week I collect about 10-12 lbs. You should try setting up recycling bins at business breakrooms as long as you check on them once a week. Check city parks on mondays after the weekend activities, you will be surprised how full the trash cans are. Another idea would be to put an ad on Craigslist that you will pick up cans from anyone. Good luck to you.

I am no expert on this topic, but I was able to find lots and lots of cans in various wooded areas that surround school fields, parks, office parks etc. Some of these cans must have been there forever as I found quite a few of those old Bud cans they haven't made for many years.

I set up 55 gal. cans at some of the local farms around during tobacco season and make huge scores there. (have to empty twice a week usually per farm)
Play golf on occasion and see lots of cans but my wife usually won't allow me to dig through the cans on the course. Golf courses definetly would be a good haul if you could get on the links.

My best haul ever was 150 pounds of aluminum cans in four hours of dumpster diving. It was after a large annual party at a small university.

Thanks for all the responses, some good food for thought, especially the comment about keeping an eye out for large parties. I think the bottom line for me is that there are too many cleaning agents that get to the cans before I do. There is simply not that many cans out there after scouring large swathes in my area. There is a large recycling program in my city, using large green cans, and I do not permit myself to rummage through the recycle bins in front of each house for different reasons, foremost because it is technically the city's property revenue I would be grabbing. This is probably where the bulk of the cans are I'm guessing.

I'm still learning the ropes with scrapping aluminum (and copper) and would like to research how to cut out the neigborhood middle man scrap yard. He's shipping them to some recycler/refiner and taking the huge spread for all my hard work. Has anyone here done this? It doesn't seem like it based on the post here the other day on the going rates. It seemed like the guy in Oregon, I think it was, was the only one getting anything close to the .80-.82 cent current price (Aluminum Cans (UBC) North America Mills).

Oregon is due to .05 per can deposit . Even here I see some on bikes come in large trash bags full. I visited Michigan and found 8 cans in 1/2 mile walk an their deposit is
.10 cents per can