I’m WFH today and in the last hour, three different battered vans have been up with people scouting for scrap metal.

Each van has at least two people in it.

How on earth does it pay? What do the do with the stuff they get and what kind of value is in an old washing machine?

an old washing machine, perhaps not much. An unsecured 200m drum of copper wire whilst an electrician is unloading their van and out of sight / an unlocked bike perhaps more lucrative…

“scouting”

is that the politically correct term for casing the joint ?

Scruff beat me to it. If they take the old washing machine as part of the cover, it will be fly tipped by the afternoon.

The scrap metal economy is a significant problem where I work and for the sake if making a few easy quid, these people have no regard for the danger they create for the unsuspecting.

I’m WFH today and in the last hour, three different battered vans have been up with people scouting for scrap metal.

Each van has at least two people in it.

How on earth does it pay? What do the do with the stuff they get and what kind of value is in an old washing machine?

There’s a bloke in our local area who is well known for collecting scrap metal. He has been at it for years & I believe is a legitimate business man.
He came round to collect our old washing machine & I asked him what he did with it all. I assumed that a lot of the stuff he collects can be refurbished & sold on, but he just laughed at that idea. He said it all gets crushed & sold for the metal value.
He told me he’d been up since 6am and had collections arranged that took him past 4pm, so that’s quite a bit of metal to collect – and he reckoned that was fairly typical.

It doesn’t pay, as such… The ferrous they get just helps pay for the diesel; that allows them to get out and about to scout for more valuable stuff that is ‘unattended’, like lead, stainless, alloys and especially brass, copper. Despite efforts to clean up the industry with cash bans, it still goes on behind the scenes and with alternative means of payment.

we have a lad who comes into our units. takes old sky dishes, cables, old aerials and poles.
reckons he earns £200 per day. works hard for it too.

I dumped an old cast iron foreplace in a neighbour’s skip, it was gone in a few hours (they did knock and ask if they could take it apparently).

Gippos. High sided vans so you can’t look in to see what they’ve ‘salvaged’.

It doesn’t pay, as such… The ferrous they get just helps pay for the diesel; 

Lads I use are making more than that. They’re not all on the rob either. I still have one contact where I can get cash for scrap and to be honest if they write you a cheque it’s no hardship as I actually have a bank account.
Recently had a load of reinforcing cage off cuts and scabby bits 9f mesh removed. Absolute ballache to get rid of, doesn’t fit in a skip etc etc, lads took it away quite happily.

Recently done some house work and had a pile of old light fittings, a rusty clothes horse, showerscreen and some tv aerial cable on the drive which I really couldnt be bothered to take the tip. Got woke up when hungover by a knock at the door, by the time I get there two guys have it all in hand say “we take” in broken english, gave em the nod and it was gone.

Thought it was odd as I live in a cul de sac so must have cased the road! funny thing was later when driving around I saw the police had pulled the rusty ford transit over, was hoping they didnt bring my scrap back! Chatting to my chippy mate, he says scrap metal thieving is rife from sites.

This brilliant film gives an insight :

The Selfish Giant

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2304426/

Same scrap man has been going around here for years, his father before that. They’ll take washing machines and pretty much any scrap metal.

I’ve a gas cooker waiting to go out for them this week.

Wrighty, unfortunately I need to be a bit blunt here so please take this in the positive way that I intend: the person that you’re dealing with who still has cash is, by definition, dishonest and you’re supporting their off-record activities by selling for cash. The black economy only works when people support and participate in it; it is possible to make a living from metal dealing without dishonesty but it isn’t easy, requires skill, perseverance and hard work. You also have to find a way to avoid the attentions of the established criminal community
It’s much easier to find your profits from the activities of others, get mixed up in theft, extortion, illegal workforce, migrants, money laundering….

I used to be able to put an old radiator out side and honestly, it was always gone so fast it seemed they were watching from space. Something has changed (maybe they’ve been clamped down on). As now stuff sits for a week or doesn’t go at all.

Was a bit peeved when they shipped the copper cable from an old microwave but left the microwave despite its stainless inerds pfff!

this is worth watching, somewhat related :

Alfie :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/clip/a70fd308-39e5-4ab8-8395-2b05c928ba8a

Washing machine has the motor which is worth more than the rest of it, I ripped out old one out and put the rest in the recycling at the tip (concrete weights got broken up for rubble).

Copper and brass is really where the money is, anything else is only worth bothering with if you’re picking it up along the way.

As before, I’ve left radiators outside and they’ve vanished, our local guy is on Facebook. Helps that the council charge for uplift so it’s a win/win for both parties.

Heads Up.

There is, or was a couple of days ago, a big drum of cable (heavy power cable) on the verge side of the A10 between the Denver and Downham Market turnoff.

Probably weighed 2 tonnes.

Literally, fell off the back of a lorry!

this is worth watching, somewhat related :

Alfie :

That’s brilliant, made my day.The meat pie roll being a highlight.

Don’t forget that they will probably be on benefits as a self employed scrap metal worker.

We have a couple of guys that are always outside the council run tip, so there is money in it. I watch to see if I can spot a decent bike frame when I pass. No luck so far.

I do, however, make sure my garage is shut if they come up my road – loads of ‘metal’ (bikes) in there.

It really doesn’t take a lot of scrap to make up a tonne, and with mixed scrap at £120 tonne, you would only need to make 1 load a day to have a reasonable weekly income. I generate a fair amount of waste metal as machines get broken and repaired, or come to the end of their lives. We used to let a scrappy take stuff, but when he started turning up here with a brand new truck to ask if we had anymore, I looked into it, and realised he had probably had a couple of grands worth of scrap from us in the space of a year. The place is much tidier now though. However, a couple of loads I took in last year netted about £400.

It is however, much harder to just drop something off at the scrappy as you need to show a passport/ID and you only get paid by BACS now. I would imagine there is still a cash for scrap economy out there, but there will be a middle man who pays cash below market value, who then takes it to the official “waste metal recycling centre” and gets paid the proper price for it.

Scrapyard 25m from where I work and is busy from the moment they open till they shut.

@wrightyson careful there, have look waste duty of care regs, if you’re contracting for bigger Principal contractors they might want to audit your transfer notes…