Aluminum cans?

In my neighborhood the best way to find scrap consistently is to get used beverage cans. There are sometimes bigger items but they are rare. Mainly revenue comes from scrap wires i get in construction sites. So I am 15, and my dad has to work on trash days so we cant drive the truck and throw the cans in the bed to bag them later. So is there any way that I can collect the cans? I suppose I could just walk with a plastic drum liner, is this the best way to go? I am trying to find a cart for my riding mower that i could use in my neighborhood but for the time being i have no other transport than my mountain bike, so does anyone have some tips to cellect these?

Any way you could rig up some sort of cart or wagon to pull behind the bike? you could attach a large garbage can or two to hold more.

Is it possible to get the neighbors to set them aside for you? If you gaurenteed that you would be by once a week to get them? Then you could get them on the day that you like. Just a thought and good for you earning your way. Maybe start with one or two pwople in the heighborhood that you know and then let word of mouth take over from there.

Good luck and keep us posted.

I like starting your own collection service in the neighborhood, or finding a way to haul them on your bike. The riding mower just burns fuel that costs money, and is not any faster than the bike.

For $20 one can by a rack that fits on the seat tube. From there you could zip tie a milk crate, or build a lightweight basket/box. If I remember right, that rack holds up to 25lbs, so should be fine for hauling cans.

It could be possible to start asking people. And also for the money it would take to rig something for the bike would be at the point where I should just get the cart for the mower. I will ask some of the people in the neighborhood i am friends with to do that so i will see. tomorrow is trash day so I will go out and collect some cans by foot and see if i can start talking to people, thanks for the tips, keep em coming

Actually the mower is pretty quick, Its a toro timecutter and is pretty efficient on fuel.

But not as efficient as your own quads. :-)

At $3 a gallon for gas, and $.50-$.65 cents a pound for cans, it takes about 160 cans to pay for a gallon of fuel. I have no idea how long a gallon of fuel would last for just hunting cans, but it would be that many cans saved if you find a way around using the mower.

Could always do like bums do around here. Push a shopping cart around.

Yea, i see what you mean, they are 71cents at my yard but still i guess my thinking is that if i found something larger like a 2 drawer filing cabinet or something i could use the mower... i will se if i can figure something out for the bike...

I would, but i dont think my dad would be very cool with me stealing a cart XD

Originally Posted by matt018

Yea, i see what you mean, they are 71cents at my yard but still i guess my thinking is that if i found something larger like a 2 drawer filing cabinet or something i could use the mower... i will se if i can figure something out for the bike...

Could try to find or cobble a cart together that would work for both the mower and the bike. If you find something that is a bit too heavy to pedal, then bring out the mower. I'm thinking a modified garden cart made with bicycle type tires, lightweight tubing (such as EMT) and plywood. Here are some basic plans to get you going:
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/sanders45.html

Given enough time and some hunting, you could probably find most of the things you needed during your scraping adventures to get it built.

Yea, I think i got some plywood around my dads shop, i know one of my neighbors has one of the lawnmower carts i never see him use so i could try to make an offer on it.

Jump on craigslist and find a cheap kid trailer for pulling behind your bike. You could modify it to hold a trash can.

Yeah you need to have 25-30 cans to equal 1 pound.So if you could get them to set them out for you or something that would be good.Dont know if i would want to dig through someone's garbage for cans.

in my neighborhood there is a seperate recycle bucket so i just need to not take the glass and plastic bottles.

Originally Posted by matt018

in my neighborhood there is a seperate recycle bucket so i just need to not take the glass and plastic bottles.

You might wanna check into that, some places it's illegal to pull things out of the recycle bins.

Actually I already did, if it is in the right of way (ten feet in out district) it is yours if you want it! i love where i live.