Uneducated (or just plain stupid) scrappers..

I ocassionally take a stroll out to the shred pile at work and will pull out sealed tanks, non-ferrouos items and other stuff that doesn't belong in there. Today I just walked out there and pulled out 30 pounds of #2 insulated wire, about 20 pounds of clean yellow brass and some other tools that I could use. While I was there I saw a guy throwing a bunch of cast parts in there. I put a magnet to them and it didn't stick so I told him to take them to our non-ferrous yard directly across the street and we would pay him $.22 a pound. He said he wasn't concerned about it and just left. All and all he probably threw 300-400 pounds of 50% cast breakage in the shred pile leaving close to $50 on the table. Sometimes I am astounded at the stuff people throw in there! While all this was going on, some of the guys that work on the ferrous yard were hitting about 20 pay phones that one of my customers brought in with sledge hammers to extract the quarters that were left in them. Between the three of them they all made about $30 each in quarters and were walking around with their pockets full and a smile on their face.

The funny thing is, when the guy brought the pay phones in I picked one up and shook it and heard money in there. I told him that there were still quarters in there and he said he didn't care because he didn't have a key to open them. All of this happened within about 10 minutes of me being on the yard. That be said I will now write up a proposal to my boss encouraging him to hire a guy to simply work the shred pile. He would pay for himself by pulling upgrades out of the shred pile and he could also help customers unload by hand, making our customer service that much better.

Thats my rant for the day.

By me you need ID and fingerprint to turn in any metal except steel and alum cans to get paid. I see lots of stuff in the piles as well...

Stainless steel sinks, cast aluminum grills, ceiling fan motors, extension ladders, most common items I see in the steel pile on a weekly basis.

If somone bringing in shred saw somthing are you allowed to grab it and pay shred price for it? or would be a yard by yard rule?

How do you end up with 20 pay phones with money still in them but not have a key? Did the guy dropping them off have any paperwork from the phone company?

I see stuff all the time, from complete towers to motors, wire ect. Makes me ill.

Like i always say if you have time at work to go through the shredd pile then you obviously aren't doing your other job. My point being whats going on in that shredd pile doesn't concern you at all and isn't making the company any money by having an hourly employee look through the pile to see whats in it and what isn't in it. It doesn't concern you and you should get back to work doing your normal job at the yard. My pet peeve is people taking time away from the company to go through a pile and pick out something that they want to take home. Honestly you shouldn't be out of your department or your crane. Now get back to work.

So you would'nt pay someone to go thru the pile?

Originally Posted by PistoneScrapProcessing

Like i always say if you have time at work to go through the shredd pile then you obviously aren't doing your other job. My point being whats going on in that shredd pile doesn't concern you at all and isn't making the company any money by having an hourly employee look through the pile to see whats in it and what isn't in it. It doesn't concern you and you should get back to work doing your normal job at the yard. My pet peeve is people taking time away from the company to go through a pile and pick out something that they want to take home. Honestly you shouldn't be out of your department or your crane. Now get back to work.

Goodness man, They're not paid to pay attention? look around? know what's going on? try to improve the place? Your post reminds me of a story my aunt told about a spinach packing place she worked at. Some reason she had nothing to do, and noticed the number of caterpillars in the spinach, so she grabbed a box and started picking them off and tossing them in. Soon after, the boss came by and asks what she's doing, "we don't have time for that, come on, I'll find you something else". Enjoy your spinach

Not plain pissed off my pet peeve is people who are supposed to be operating equipment on the ground sorting through piles. You have 8 hours at a scrap yard to get work done even 10 mins of not working can have a cascading effect throughout the yard as to what gets loaded unloaded and crane placement get thrown out of whack. Tripping over dollars to make a few dimes. They bought it as shredd ship it as shredd. I see the big picture when others see a small window.

Originally Posted by PistoneScrapProcessing

Not plain pissed off my pet peeve is people who are supposed to be operating equipment on the ground sorting through piles. You have 8 hours at a scrap yard to get work done even 10 mins of not working can have a cascading effect throughout the yard as to what gets loaded unloaded and crane placement get thrown out of whack. Tripping over dollars to make a few dimes. They bought it as shredd ship it as shredd. I see the big picture when others see a small window.

Nose to the grindstone, that's true as well.

Kz I think we might see this issue of sorting through the shredd differently. I look to attach a dollar value to everything going on in the yard. Let's put it like this that crane should be making a hundred dollars plus an hour. Taking 15 mins to pull out 30 bucks worth of material out of the pile doesn't make sense when they should just move and process the material in the yard. I have been in meetings with employees and yard managers where the employees got there sh$t jumped for going through the shredd instead of putting the shredd in the pile and getting back to making bales. they were taking washers and dryers and crushing them with grapple then getting out there crane to pick up a dollar how is the yard supposed to make money doing that.

At my yard I've seen people bring in whole washers dryers etc. When the workers unload the scrap with their grapples they intentionally pull the motors out of them with a yank and throw them in a whole different pile. Now I know that it's not the same as walking around picking but part of their jobs is sorting the scrap.