I hope we save a little for our selves

I know I am scrapping in special times ,Times that will pass .
I have become a fixture of the community . Police once or twice have stopped me at a construction site.The look of , well ok . metal with a chunk of cement on it , twisted trash metal , old vac's and so on
It's what they don't see thats most important NOT one piece of metal from the areas that supply the workers there good steel . there could be a pile of re-bar 20 feet from me but I don't have it . Best of all I am completely oblivious to any metal unless it's in a mix dumpster or pile of unwanted items.
Yesterday I hit a local utility company dumpster what a score! (yes I have permission) for copper & brass I also remove all the old large nuts and bolts from the cut polls .Theres plenty of trash in there so It was a hour and a half of work to find it all - figure about $100 when all cashed in. A local police drove by as I toss out the trash metal goods , he sees me and could care less. It took time in to get to this point of trust in towns.

But the real point of this post is I see all the really top quality steels I sell to the yards often its steel from 10 15 years ago . You know I'm just one small scrapper guy but add all of us and all the enormous quantities that in the end keep getting sold to china and others. Are we with out realizing sending out more then we get back in goods ? Are we slowly depleting the easy and fast have - raw materials that some day we may not have in the same abundance ? Are we scrapping out our country ?



Some times i find a piece of steel I just have to admire ,
usually it will be based on small size but kicking weight . sure in the mean time I sell off the others,but in time I have lots of fine short steel that are kind of like my pets . After that moment passes I eventually say , umm time to sell off this stuff !!
And thats the truth - I sell it,then it's gone - and sure i got a $100 to show- that disappears to the money sucking tornado of my reality - - BILLS .

People as drove home with my cash to day ,the sun was shining and it hit me ,Little By Little I am helping to sell off our raw materials . I hope I am wrong.

Your not selling off our raw materials. You are preventing the ones we still have in the ground from being used up. Look at copper. We have about 20 years left of ore. However this is expected to never run out because of people like us.
It's one thing to sit in a fine office and at the end of the day con yourself into feeling good because you recycle newspapers and a few cans, but it's is another thing to get out and sweat and suffer the injuries of doing what we do.
It's kind of like untested faith. Easy to believe in God when everything is going your way and your not hungry. Give me a homeless wreck that believes in God and I will show you a true christian.
True I like the extra money too.

Yes I can see that we help prevent our in the ground resources from be depleted .
But here is a point years ago when most of our goods were made in America we paid no mind to "made in china" yet now china in a sense has systematically become the main suppler of almost every thing. Recently I saw a Schwinn bike, now in my day that was made in the USA . Now it's China and heck it looks like good workmanship. I walk through Target all China .
So the question is ? how can we be sure that China and others are not Slowly & systematically buying more then we get back in goods .It make sense to me as Don't you love having a big stash of metals . I pick up each and every TV cause I know it will end when all people finally own Flats. What makes you think china & India don't say - KEEP buying - the good scrap will run dry !! then we will have the Lions share of it. after all they know what there selling us now.
The new stuff they sell us has scrap items also ,but not like the past items . Thats the truth ,TVs ovens fridges and more are just not as juicy as the original. They are stockpiling . And we may one day have the choice of buying back what we need or tap into our land resources .

Correct me if I am wrong but did china buy a huge mine in Australia . So fellow scrappers we are paid well for our work cause they want what we still can find . I feel it - - some day a change is on the way not sure when .
I once found a old news paper circa 1954 the head line stated CHINA vows to be a world producer by year 2000 They clearly did what they stated . Well i am telling you we are being paid very well for our work wile the poor of those foreign towns get pennies for there efforts , some thing is fishy !! The day I see a vacuum motor with AL wire that will be a sign .I have encountered small window fans with AL motor wire & and I see more of the last tube TVs have a AL wire as the wire around tube . Cones still good .
I hoard ,and they are hoarding big time

copperhead while i see your point there are tariffs for teh oversea metals so cleveland and pittsburgh steel can get out resources cheaper

It is sad that we are no longer producing as we once did, but the fact that the scrap goes overseas is not a reflection on what you are doing as much as it is a side effect of a much larger issue.
America has been whoring it's soul for a while. Remember in the 1980's when everyone thought Japan was going to own the U.S.? Guess what Japan was small compared to the east Indian ownership of real estate and business.
China right now produces a lot of product not just for us but for European markets as well.
The fact is you have to sell (in this case steel, copper, brass, etc...) to the user. I would love to see more metal used here in the U.S., but it is simple supply and demand.
The fact that you are selling your scrap and some of it ends up overseas is caused more by our government and consumers than it is anything else.