Confession

I have a confession to make. Copper prices have gone to crap so ive been cutting cords latley. I feel guilty about this because some wire and motor is going to landfill but its not worth my time because i have more valuable uses of my time.

You want to check your state and local laws, but by picking them up or even cutting the cords you might be "taking possession" of them. Then by discarding the item, you could be littering or something else.

good comments,ive always done well on this stuff up until now, when i part out cars i usually just throw a few vacuum carcases in each one and get paid shred for the plastic and metal also, metal prices are way down and headed lower

believe it or not the main thing i am looking for when i curb shop are cardboard boxes i need for ebay and resale items, all of the scrap is just a bonus, i dont mess with console tvs or projection tvs anymore either

on my last run i found a box of aluminum cookware, 2 vacumms and a 32 can flat of coke in addition to my boxes, the old vacumms i found were in new vacuum boxes so it always pays to check boxes on the curb

To me there are two options: Take it or leave it.

The only time I ever cut cords is when it's something has no value other then the cord, and even then I ask if it's ok to just take the cord. I feel really bad when I cherry pick during curb shopping. The same thing with CRT's, I would never gut a TV on the curb. IDK, It just doesn't seem right to me.

Your poll says "and leave them on the curb", although your post doesn't, which actually makes a difference. At your place, if you want to snip it, and toss it in shred(or elsewhere), it makes nobody any difference but yourself. To snip em off the curb is halfway to stripping a TV, or anything else, and leaving the carcass there

If you are looking for boxes, there are always a lot of folks giving them away on freecycle or craigslist. All sizes, too. If you feel guilty about it, maybe you should listen to your conscience. Why get greedy? I always had a policy to either take the whole thing or leave it for someone else.

Besides, I gave up curb shopping because it seems like 9 times out of 10 I go through $10.00 in gas for $5.00 worth of scrap after breakdown.

I put some stuff out on the curb for pickup not long ago, I made sure I saved a nice sturdy box and put all the things I was willing to part with, that were taking up room, that I do not process myself in the box. I feel that if I am not going to try to make a buck on something I should give someone else the opportunity to.

The people who posted the flyer came by and picked up the stuff, that was great, but they left the box.

Now I know this must seem like no big deal to people who are picking up stuff, but so far as I am concerned, they should have taken the box as well. So now, I am not going to put anything else out for this particular company because so far as I am concerned they did a half ass job and are benefiting from my giving them free stuff.

So before anyone clips anything, or only takes part, or tries to cherry pick their pick ups, stop and think about how the person that put it out there for you is going to feel about this. It would have been easier for them to just throw it away in many cases, yet they saved it, and put it out for you. And now you want to pick and choose what you take and leave?

At the very least you can pick up even the stuff you don't want, and drop it at the dumps. It's the difference between conducting yourself in a noble way, or the drive by money grabbing I so often see in the cut throat scrap business. I know that I might ruffle some feathers with this post, and I realize that people who are cherry picking are still working very hard and trying to make their business their living. I also realize that you might not think about things through the eyes of the person you are picking up junk from, but you might want to think about it now.

Also think about this, if you advertise that you are picking up junk, and clearly state you pick up certain items in your flyer, then you should be taking all those things at the very least away. If you put up a flyer and state you only take such and such items, and specifically mention you clip chords, then that's one thing, but if you are actually advertising by flyer or otherwise that you pick up junk, and you leave what you think of as junk behind, then what you are doing is wrong.

Scott

Originally Posted by scrapping4ever

By me most people will just smash the back of the tv and just take the yoke and leave all the aluminum and wires. Anyone else notice this?

Not around me. The scrappers around me like leaded glass I guess. Lol.

I have to wonder how long your cities, counties or states will allow this type of behavior to continue. In California, you are not suppose to have any e-waste outside in the rain for example, for extended lengths of time because the rain water will wash heavy metals and toxins into the sewer and thus the water supply. Smashing CRTs to remove part of them is the most idiotic act I have heard so far. If people understood what exactly they were doing, they wouldn't do it. Or at least I hope they wouldn't.

I hope when the day comes where stricter laws are passed preventing people from leaving junk on the curb for people to pick up, the people who are breaking things and clipping chords don't show up here and complain about the new laws.

If everyone conducted themselves in an honorable way, there would be no need for laws, and because lawmakers never conduct themselves in an honorable way, you can expect the laws, when passed, to be excessive in their scope.

Scott

My yard will take vacuums whole for shred, even with the cord cut.