The cheep skate gazette (making money by recycling)

Today, I'm gonna take some scrap metal to the metal recycling center. I know it sounds pretty dumb huh? But you know you can make some money by recycling scrap metal. My neighbor and I had a whole bunch of stuff laying around the house to get rid of and I decided to see if I could make some money with it.



I made about $80 just off the things that were around here. What I didn't know then was how to break stuff down so that I could get top dollar. I went to the land fill over the weekend in between being ill, and I saw truck loads of people taking metal to the land fill for there recycling program. I don't think they know that the city's recycling program makes money off those items, and they are literally throwing money away. They charge us to pick up our trash, then make us recycle and then make money off our recyclables.



So here is how to recycle and make some money by scrap metaling:



Lets start with a gas grill. Mine has been broke and taking up space in my back yard for quite a while. First clean the dirt and grime off it by running the hose over the entire grill. I didn't know to clean the crap off it. They give more money for cast iron that is clean than if it is dirty. Almost double. The main part of the grill is cast iron and brings in more money than just taking the whole thing to the scrap metal pile. The the legs are aluminum, you can tell because a magnet will not stick to it. You can throw the gas lines in with the scrap metal you'll get some more money for it. Not a lot, but every little bit helps.



Then there was an old dish washer that my neighbor had replaced in her house. I took the gears off the bottom of the dishwasher and got the copper wires out from there. Cooper is a real good item to recycle because it brings in so much money. I mean lots of money. Haven't you heard about people going into old houses and taking there cooper pipes. OK anyway , then take the front off the dishwasher. I put my magnet up to it and guess what? Aluminum, yep aluminum. That gets about double the price for just plain steel. So I put the cooper aside for another day when I have a lot more of it.



Next she had an old stove. I cut the cord off the back. You guessed it cooper. I will remove the plastic cover later when I have nothing else to do. Clean cooper gets more money than cooper encased. I took the drip pans out, they were aluminum and took the glass off the front by removing the screws. Most recycling centers will not take the glass and some even deduct for the glass. Then I removed the racks in the oven. They were aluminum once again the magnet did not stick to it. More money. Then the tray that is at the bottom of the stove. That's aluminum. The rest I just took to scrap metal pile. Not a lot of money but still every little bit helps.



One last thing. I had and old sink that I took off a cabinet that someone gave me. You guessed it I recycled it. I got $8 for it as is and that just added to my load. So I made $80 off stuff that my neighbor and I were throwing away.



No you don't have to do a lot of running around most scrap metal recycling centers take all this at one place. They sell it to a third party that then melts them down and makes still more money.

You can recycle anything that is made of metal. Not only appliances, but pots and pans, aluminum cans, even the cans that you get your canned goods in can be recycled. The only catch is that if you want to get top money then you have to rinse them out and take any paper off. They even will pay you for old batteries. Yes your old car battery that you thought the guy at the store was so nice to take off your hands. Well he made money off it in the end.........



So in these troubled times when every penny counts. You have money right under your nose and never even realized it..........Stay tuned for more installments of the cheep skate gazette