A roadside trash pick-up find
Barberian
Posts: 3,548 ✭✭✭✭✭
While picking up aluminum cans and trash along a fence line this week, I found a 5"x5"x10" heavy cardboard box containing a Wm Rogers silver-plate flatware set (weighing about 4 pounds) with a sterling-handled carving knife and fork. I also salvaged a spiffy wood-trimmed Mossy Oak wall clock, an unopened can of Bid Light, and about $7.00 worth of aluminum cans. Also spotted a drive train, several wheels, and sets of brake pads for salvage.
It's not exactly metal detecting but I'm at least hunting for metal. And the proceeds go toward purchase of "junk" Morgans, Walkers and Franklin halves.
3 rim nicks away from Good
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Nice finds and just like detecting you don't know what your going to find I turn my scrap into gold
Lafayette Grading Set
nice find, as said abovw you never never know, congrats
That carving set may be Stieff it is a very nice find.
Nice find!
Type collector, mainly into Seated. -formerly Ownerofawheatiehorde. Good BST transactions with: mirabela, OKCC, MICHAELDIXON, Gerard
Thanks! I just looked it up and it's a pretty good match for a Stieff Rose Sterling Carving set. I don't see Stieff stamped anywhere, though. Only "STERLING HANDLE" at the base of the handle. I think it's a "Machin's Mills" Stieff, a copycat pattern, but I need to research this more. It is interesting to read about how the dies for the handles are engraved and vary considerably over time. Apparently, people collect Stieff Rose silver flatware patterns. Has someone has identified the different die varieties? I assume yes.
The silverplate is made by Wm Rogers.
I was interested in scrapping the sterling handles but the gf wants it as a cutlery set.
Hey @Barberian , approximately how much money do you get for a single aluminum can to scrap it?
God bless all who believe in him. Do unto others what you expect to be done to you. Dubbed a "Committee Secret Agent" by @mr1931S on 7/23/24. Founding member of CU Anti-Troll League since 9/24/24.
Right now, RMC across from the airport in Lake City is paying $0.54 per pound for Used Beverage Container (UBC) aluminum. That works out on average to around 1.6 cents per can. I turn in 150-200 pounds at a time when I go to LC for other errands.
I don't hold for better prices anymore. I did that once for a few years and filled up half of a two-car garage with over 100,000 crushed aluminum cans. In classic fashion, the market near rock bottom didn't go into an upturn until after I turned in all of those cans.
I've recovered tens of thousands of cans from your neck of the woods because I like to ride over your way to hit boat landings, bars, parks, the HS football stadium, ice machines, etc. I don't know the heavy beer/soda drinking households over there like I do around my little town, though.
I love cycling and recycling, so I have great fun doing this on a recumbent bike. HOWEVER, do it mainly for fun and exercise because recycling UBCs doesn't pay all that well. Picking up roadways pays about $1.50 per hr.; going out on "garbage night" pays about $5-6 per hour. Tailgating at a major college football game can yield $100 or more. Bring a van.
Ginnie Springs pays out at least $40 per weekend visit, though there is a $15 entrance fee for cars. For some swashbuckling silliness, I want to land there from upstream via kayak to avoid the entrance fee, 'pirate' a few thousand cans, and head off downstream towing a float loaded with cans.
My garbage scow, Big Red, with a good day's haul.
I am asking because I have found a huge stash of cans, somewhere that no one ever goes: under the Buccaneer stadium. My sister is there all the time practicing softball, so I intend to bring some bags and "do the town a favor". Surely they can't complain if I take out the trash.
Can you just drive up to the recycle place, or do you have to schedule an appointment?
God bless all who believe in him. Do unto others what you expect to be done to you. Dubbed a "Committee Secret Agent" by @mr1931S on 7/23/24. Founding member of CU Anti-Troll League since 9/24/24.
Cool! Hidden treasure at Buccaneer Stadium! Been there! That's a good place to look as well as Hatch Park, Suwannee River Park, and the two ice machines in town. How many cans do you think you have in all in this stash?
First, I'd ask around to find out who saved those cans. I wouldn't want to pirate someone else's recycling efforts. If you cannot find the people who put them there, then note the payout when you turn them in and have that number if someone ever approaches you about it. If they feel cheated out of those cans, then negotiate a fair price since you did the legwork turning them in.
I always offer to split the proceeds with anyone who stops and offers to give me their large stash of cans at their house. I want to reward those who save their cans. Most folks pass on the offer and are happy to just get rid of them. I've met some really nice folks in the area that way.
One can drive in to a local recycling center without an appointment. There's one on 247 on the way to Lake City, and one in Live Oak, but I take my cans to the Recycling Center in Lake City while doing errands in town because they pay better. Keep in mind that transportation costs eat into any profits from recycling, so I try to haul large loads (150-200 pounds) each time.
At the Lake City Recycling Center on Washington Road out by the airport, drive in 100 feet or so and there's an office, scales, and guys weighing scrap. They will take your bags of cans and empty them into a large bucket for weighing. They know the weights of the buckets and will subtract that from your total weight. After they've weighed your cans, go to the office window and they will pay cash for what your cans are worth. It usually takes 3-5 minutes. They may ask for some identification for their records so bring an id.
Then I usually hit the local coin shop and purchase some silver bullion or junk silver. He doesn't carry my coin series but he is great for buying bullion and junk silver.
Thanks @Barberian !
Here in Germay customers have to pay a deposit on most beverage containers (except if they hold milk, wine or liquor). The usual deposits are 0.08€ for a beer bottle, 0.15€ for a refillable bottle and 0.25€ for cans and non-refillable plastic bottles. You can return most of the empty containers at pretty much every supermarket, so getting the deposit back is very easy.
But there are still some people who leave behind their empty containers, and if I find some on my way home from work or on my evening walk through the neighbourhood, I usually pick them up. At the end of the year I like to combine my "bottle money" with my clad coins from metal detecting to buy some nice coins, my last purchase was a 1814 French 20 Francs coin. It's always fun to convert this "free money" into silver or gold coins....
Nice ride, might need a bigger saddle bag.
I know a guy that makes jewelry type pieces from silver plated utensil handles IF you want to get rid of that sort of thing.
How do you crush the cans?
I figured it I ever needed to crush a large lot of cans easily, I would have a bicycle peddle assembly to turn a fat car tire paired with another static tire...a 1/2" gap in between and a hopper for the cans.
The gf has claimed the sterling-handled cutlery set. She's a bit of a hoarder, I'm afraid.
If I'm on my 'bent, I crush the cans with my foot as I pick them up and toss them into the blue bag on the right side. I have to crush the cans tight to be able to maximize the number of cans I can carry on the bike. When the blue bag is full, I transfer them into the clear ice bags and tie them off to the seat frame or rear rack.
If I go out and collect cans by car on garbage night, I don't have time to crush them. I'm usually dealing with large numbers of cans and time is more limiting than space. It's like a mad timed shopping spree - you're trying to put as much in your 'cart' as you can. Cans get brought back to the house for crushing later. I use my shoe and 260+ lbs. of body weight to crush them. Locate your neighborhood heavy beer and soda drinkers! Their garbage are precious renewable resources, just like litterbugs are.
At home, after bags have been removed from the bike and cans have dried out in the ice bags, they get emptied into heavy duty trash bags for hauling to the recycling center. All bags are recycled to minimize cost. Bags are also available at Ice machines and out of dumpsters with dry trash (drug store, etc.). Know your dumpsters!
If you have a van or a truck, the recycling plant is nearby, and you aren't pressed for space, then I wouldn't bother crushing them. Turn them in as is after they've dried. I crush them to maximize what I can pick up on a bicycle ride. If you live a long way from a recycling center, then you may also want to crush cans to maximize the poundage hauled with each truckload. Keep in mind you're not going to get rich doing this, so minimize your handling time as much as possible.
Anyway, that's a lot on cans. I really enjoy it though.
Amazing what people will throw away.
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
Does it matter if there is a little bit of dirt in the cans? I seem to find lots that I have to dump the dirt out of, and when they are already crushed it is not easy.
God bless all who believe in him. Do unto others what you expect to be done to you. Dubbed a "Committee Secret Agent" by @mr1931S on 7/23/24. Founding member of CU Anti-Troll League since 9/24/24.
Yes, it does matter. Recycling plants complain about sand and wet cans. Cans need to be reasonably clean and dry. You have to get the sand, cigarette butts, and bug carcasses out first. I shake the can first. If there's sand or debris in the can, I twist the can a few times until it rips apart and dump the contents. Obviously, I do that before I crush the can. I may also use a tin snip to cut up cans back at the house.
Cans and Scrap becomes Silver and Gold
Lafayette Grading Set
The price of silver can be expressed in recycled aluminum cans. At the moment, an ounce of silver ($28.45) is roughly equivalent to 1,725 aluminum cans. An ounce of gold? 142,440 aluminum cans. That's equivalent to one hour of tailgating at a typical college football game, or 5 minutes at an Ohio State game.
College football games are aluminum 'mother lodes.' So are large recreation areas and boat landings on holidays.
1725 cans for a ounce of silver? That's a lot of work!
Since here in Germany there is a 0.25€ deposit on cans and most plastic bottles, not many of them get thrown away. But at a spot price of 28€ per ounce of silver and 2152€ per ounce of gold, it only takes 112 for a ounce of silver and 8608 cans for a ounce of gold.
Just recently I was able to afford a nice coin with my bottle money:
