Piles it up & takes it in when he has enough to make a lump in his pocket.

Scrap Aluminum is about 75 cents a pound and iron/steel 18 cents. Copper is $2.30 to $2.70 depending on what it is. He may also find other treasures in the trash... or work for the CIA/FBI. :eek:

If it's copper, then it's definitely worth it, but I thought iron wasn't worth enough to bother transporting. I don't know where the scrap metal place is, but I bet there is one within 30 miles of me. So let's say you have a truck that gets 11 MPG. That's going to take roughly 6 gallons round trip, or roughly $20. So he'd need 111 pounds to break even. I guess that's not so hard. A broken water heater or two, and you're there. In fact, if I had a truck, I might join in. This guy loads his pickup each trash day.

Nobody ever said he was smart, not like you expect most trash pickers to be.

But in reality, he probably has an MBA. You just don't understand his business model. ;)

Over the past 3 years I have replaced my old aluminum clad single pane windows with new double glass ones, I pay as I go so it's taking awhile. Most window companies do lousy work so I do my own and know my work is better.

I remove the old windows and then carefully remove the glass without smashing it up if possible or at least as little as I can. Later I use a glass cutter to get the big pieces down to smaller sizes and drop them at recycling and I take all of the extruded aluminum from the frames and take it to a metal recycler. Most if it is pitted and a bit dirty so I get .65/lb but so far I have paid for one of the replacement windows!

As far as trash pickers who profit from our throwaways, I think it is still very common in third world countries. My brother lived in India and saw that everything tossed out eventually got picked up.

When I was a kid and visited my British cousins who lived near Hampstead Heath (NW of London) in about 1962 I remember seeing a guy with a horse and wagon picking up stuff. My grandmother called him "the rag and bones man."

Hey, Sundae, do they still have those guys there? I bet not. :dedhorse: