I don't know who to blame - Covid or the dims...

[Glock 'em down]

My father in law lives with us and has for the last 7-8 years. He's the ripe old age of 91. He left school in the 5th grade to go to work to support his family, as most young men did during the great depression. He never graduated high school, doesn't have a college degree. He has been a cowboy his entire life. His biggest claim to fame is that he used to work on the Chapman ranch with legendary actor, the late Ben Johnson.

He doesn't go to the coffee shop to hang out with all the other old timers, because frankly, he's so much older than them. He has literally outlived most everyone his age. He stays somewhat active, which keeps him out of the nursing home. He's always tinkering around the house, doing this and that, just to stay busy. He ALWAYS has a pair of leather work gloves in his back pocket, ready to work.

Something he has done for the last several years, is collect aluminum cans and sell them. He has a few people in town who also saves cans for him, so he stays pretty busy. Imagine how upset he was, when over the weekend, he and I took his load of cans to the local recycling place and they told him that they are not buying cans any longer.



So, we went to another recycling center. Same response.



So, I called other recycling centers in our surrounding area, and they all said the same thing.

What the hell? Is this again the curse of the Covid? I thought "going green" was the big thing nowadays. Hell, we've been doing this for years. But sadly, I guess no more.

 

[CutBaitNBlowSh*tUp4ALivin]

Now I'm curious enough to follow

 

[donner]

our town discontinued curbside recycling because of cost to the city. It became a problem when things shut down and our tourism tax revenue stopped. We still have drop off locations, but i don't believe it ever paid for cans.

I know one thing affecting the recycling industry has been that China has started refusing to take recycling from the US. Coupled with the drop in price for Aluminum, it's harder to find companies that find it profitable.

From an LA Times article

Red ink sank many recyclers as the prices for scrap aluminum and plastic declined, while state payments meant to cover a portion of their operating costs did not keep up with their actual expenses. (The money to support the centers comes from bottle deposits paid by consumers that are never collected.)

The drooping price of aluminum has been particularly problematic. Recyclers that once got 80 to 90 cents per pound for aluminum cans now get a little more than 40 cents. “That was the meat that was on the bone, and with the scrap price dropping so much there is no way to recoup that at all,” said Jeff Donlevy, general manager in the East Bay for Ming’s Resources, a company that redeems and processes containers into new bottles.

Prices for recycled plastic also dipped sharply, in part as a result of China’s decision to stop accepting imports of the material from the U.S. and other countries. The Chinese said the imported plastic was contaminated with other materials.

 

[HiredHand]

Odd. I’ve read there is a shortage of aluminum cans.

 

[donner]

Odd. I’ve read there is a shortage of aluminum cans.

new cans or aluminum metal in general? I could see where production of new cans might be down due to production chain problems, but that probably wouldn't be affecting the price of the metal/demand for recycling.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

Build a charcoal mini foundry and melt them cans into pucks with a muffin tin. All the stuff you need is available at Home Depot, and it's a heck of a good time watching a 33 gallon bag of cans become a dozen pieces of aluminum

 

[tRidiot]

Our local center shut down. The city has some dumpsters you can donate recyclable aluminum, but no place locally to sell cans.

 

[tyromeo55]

I took my boy to Frailey's in Turley a couple weeks ago and sold his cans. didn't get much for them but anything to an 8 year old is great. I think his big bag of cans were $6 the couple short pieces of copper wire been sitting in the bed of the truck for some time brought him another almost $3

 

[HiredHand]

new cans or aluminum metal in general? I could see where production of new cans might be down due to production chain problems, but that probably wouldn't be affecting the price of the metal/demand for recycling.

It was a story on a shortage of new cans that is affecting the beer and soda industry.

 

[ConstitutionCowboy]

My father in law lives with us and has for the last 7-8 years. He's the ripe old age of 91. He left school in the 5th grade to go to work to support his family, as most young men did during the great depression. He never graduated high school, doesn't have a college degree. He has been a cowboy his entire life. His biggest claim to fame is that he used to work on the Chapman ranch with legendary actor, the late Ben Johnson.

He doesn't go to the coffee shop to hang out with all the other old timers, because frankly, he's so much older than them. He has literally outlived most everyone his age. He stays somewhat active, which keeps him out of the nursing home. He's always tinkering around the house, doing this and that, just to stay busy. He ALWAYS has a pair of leather work gloves in his back pocket, ready to work.

Something he has done for the last several years, is collect aluminum cans and sell them. He has a few people in town who also saves cans for him, so he stays pretty busy. Imagine how upset he was, when over the weekend, he and I took his load of cans to the local recycling place and they told him that they are not buying cans any longer.



So, we went to another recycling center. Same response.



So, I called other recycling centers in our surrounding area, and they all said the same thing.

What the hell? Is this again the curse of the Covid? I thought "going green" was the big thing nowadays. Hell, we've been doing this for years. But sadly, I guess no more.

Get him or help him make a little smelter. I made one several years ago according to the King of Random's instructions and had good success with it melting down aluminum cans. A couple years ago I made a smelter out of a used propane tank - like the ones you can buy/exchange at most hardware/pharmacies/grocery stores i and some ceramic batting. Making a propane burner for it out of pipe and pipe fittings is easy as well (Youtube is replete with them). Then all you need is a regulator such as those Youtube videos show, a couple crucibles, tongs, and something to cast the aluminum into. Again, Youtube is your friend.

I enjoy smelting and have used the aluminum I cast into useful shapes for my combination lathe/milling machine.

Woody