Date Mornings with Carrie

Carrie and I went to the scrap yard for our "date" this morning. We offloaded our old A/C unit and we made out rather well!

I never knew scrap could be this profitable. Our trash paid for breakfast at Wegmans, lunch, gas, dinner, and a small gift (with a joke inside) that Carrie wanted to buy for her mom.

How's that for a productive date?


The scrap yard was a neat experience. Carrie and I aren't just a pair of city slickers who've never seen a scrap yard! We do things!

Dan and I threw everything in the truck last night. This morning, Carrie and I saddled up just before 7 and drove to a recycling center. The guys there threw all of the copper onto a scale and then told us to drive around back.

To get around back, we had to drive up on a large scale. From there, we drove up to a pile of scrap where a guy in a bobcat met us. He slid the rest of our junk off the truck, pointed to the scale, and waved farewell. We hopped back on the scale, an indistinguishable voice said something over a loudspeaker (I can only assume it was "Ok!") and we rolled back up front.

The journey would have ended there, but we had one last piece of metal on the truck. It was a condenser (with copper), but it was bolted to a steel plate. If we had separated the unit, we would have gotten the copper rate for it. Since we hadn't, we were told to drive around back and count it as steel or take it home!

Carrie and I opted for the quick route. If you look at the slip, we probably gave up close to $20 by doing so. We unloaded 200 lbs for steel for around $8. The rest of our tally was all from copper! I find it amusing that steel used to be highly prized for weapons and armor and now it's worth pennies on the pound. Copper, which was used for weapons and armor by the saps without steel, is now a surprisingly valued commodity.

I never would have known this if not for Dan. A senior service member at his company stole a large amount of company cash by purchasing copper for construction sites and then scraping it. No one noticed a couple extra pipes being purchased and misplaced here and there. He got more brazen, and the company was out tens of thousands of dollars.

He would have gotten away with it too, if not for the scrap yards.

After the giant piles of different metals, the second thing Carrie and I noticed were all of the cameras. My license was scanned to process my ticket and a camera was pointed at my face as I collected our pay out. The cameras were obvious. They were everywhere, and if you somehow missed them you probably would see all of the signs pointing at them (and all but shouting "SECURITY x10!").

The scrap yards were curious about the high quality copper they were getting, went through their video records, and contacted Dan's company. Otherwise, the scam would have continued.

True story.

Carrie and I enjoyed our scrap yard adventure. We could have gotten more money if we wanted, but I wasn't about to fret. We were paid to drop off our trash. I don't mind the scrappers making a profit. I would have gained nothing if they did not exist.

We'll call it a win-win (the best type of situation).

I am amazed at how much bonus profit most HVAC companies can make (residential and especially commercial). No one thinks about their trash as money. When the HVAC workers offer to 'dispose' of old units, they can make $100 and change for less than 10 minutes of demo work and a quick pit-stop. None of that is factored into the bid for a job.

I love a learning experience. I'll certainly look twice if I see anything out on a curb from now on! The scrap yard listed a bunch of different materials that they were interested in including old electronics.