Hello All.

**JollySkipper** · 05-11-2017, 12:00 PM

Hi! New to the forum. Glad to be here. I've already learned a lot by reading old threads. Thanks for that!

I run a small trucking company in Middle Georgia. Grant Industrial Transportation. You can find us on Facebook. (I can't post links yet)
We primarily move equipment and industrial cargo.
If anyone in the Middle Georgia Area needs something hauled, we will be glad to quote it!

Occasionally I will buy something and scrap it. Heavy stuff mostly like forklifts and derelict equipment.
I have worked on the edge of the automotive scrap industry for a couple of decades (Towing & Recovery, and Specialized Transport)but, escrap is a new venture for me.

Heartbreak story: I bought a house that been being used as an office, and the seller offered me a good discount, if I cleaned it out. He was an IT tech, and two of the rooms was stacked up with Towers, hard drives and misc escrap, some batteries and an old robotic analog storage module that weighed about 200#s.
It took me several days to get it all loaded onto the trailer. (I did keep the loose hard drives).
I called a local recycler and asked it they took Computer Scrap. "Sure do!" was the response.
I towed the trailer over there and scaled (5200#s of stuff on the trailer). After they unloaded, I scaled out, and went inside. I found out, that they do, in fact take computer scrap, but they didn't pay computer scrap prices. They paid me the tin price. There was NO way, I was loading it back up.
Even with the batteries, which payed ok, My total check was $109.
I wrote escrap off, for over a year, until I did a bit more research.
I hate to think what that load would have been worth, if it had been processed and recycled correctly.
Live and learn. ;-)

Anyway, that's me. Nice to be here. Thanks for having me.
Ken Grant
JollySkipper

Edited to add: YAY I can post links now! Grant Industrial Transportation - Home | Facebook

**Patriot76** · 05-11-2017, 02:13 PM

Welcome to SMF. Thank you for sharing the valuable lesson you learned. Scrap yards specialize just as we do as scrappers. The closest yard to me does not specialize in ewaste but will accept it as prepared metal. Then they sell it to a vendor for about 10 cents on the dollar. Therefore your load would have netted me over $ 300 selling locally. By hauling a load 300 miles, I would have netted many times that amount. I do not deal in ewaste, but I do understand how the markets and scrap yards work.

When I first started I had a similar situation only with #1 metal and was paid tin price. After visiting with the manager a deal was struck that if I provided 10 tons of steel within a month, reimbursement would be made at business prices. We were even within a week. Do not hesitate to negotiate before unloading.

**JollySkipper** · 05-11-2017, 04:44 PM

That was nice of them. I just got an apology. ;-)

I can't say how it is these days, but years ago, the local recyclers would buy the scrap and then ship it 80 miles up the road to Atlanta, and sell it to the larger companies and make enough profit to thrive. The world is a lot smaller these days, so there is no telling if that is still the standard mode of operation around here.

**miked** · 05-11-2017, 05:13 PM

Welcome to the forum. Good on you for reading the old threads it will serve you well. I look forward to you sharing your knowledge with the forum. 73, Mike

**mikeinreco** · 05-11-2017, 06:20 PM

I think alot of people see easy quick money in escrap....i think the opposite is probably true

**JollySkipper** · 05-12-2017, 05:42 PM

From what I've learned and done so far, it is a LOT more work. But the payout VS outlay might be better, simply because there seems to be so much of it, and folks are being inundated with broken electric stuff and no way to dispose it, other than that magic trash can. ;-)
There is a small recycler that just opened up in my town, and they are steadily packing pallets with computer scrap for shipping to India. So if you have the networking ability, and enough energy to get it done, I suppose you can see some profit.
I'm curious about it, but I'm not wanting to go all in. The trucking company takes most of my time, and we are trying to get some rental properties going, but it does slow down from time to time, and I do enjoy tearing stuff up and getting paid to do it. ;-)

**tski72** · 05-12-2017, 06:39 PM

Welcome to the forum. Its great that you have been going through the old posts here, but another thing to check into, is the local laws regarding e-waste in your state and work around them also. since you have a trucking company, you probably have space to stare a couple pallets or so out of the way and elements, in an old trailer or a corner of the warehouse, then you can be within your local laws and still make some extra cash. Key I feel is the state laws, if your state has a landfill ban on the books, collect all that stuff in whatever means you can and break it down when you have a slow period. Even if you ship the higher value stuff to some of the buyers here, I feel it would be well worth it.