alex parkison
New member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2025
- Messages
- 1
My names alex, I'm 30 years old from ohio. I just got started but read that networking was the most important step to getting sufficient supply. At first I started by dumpster diving and then asking small businesses but something I hadn't thought of and something you can do aswell just fell into my lap. My local scrap yard has a 20by 6 dumpster that they call household waste. After asking a few questions I found out that they resell wood, aluminum, copper, and steel. They said all "complex" material, or anything you have to take apart, have their power cords cut before tossing the appliance into the household waste dumpster. Seeing flat-screen tvs and computer towers I asked the yard manager if I could go through it. I said I could pay for what I take since obviously they sell recycled metals. He said anything in this dumpster cost them per pound to send to the landfill, therefore anything I breakdown would make more room in the dumpster and less weight on the scales. He said I'd save them money with everything I touched so take all I want. I thought I hit the jackpot with about 500 pounds worth of random electronics. Then I got to thinking, I should ask if he would let me know the next time it was full so I could come back. He told me they take that dumpster to the landfill atleast once a week and sometimes 3 times a week. He said they take roughly 10000 pounds of "household waste" to the dump every month. I asked if he would give me exclusive access to this supply, even offered to put it in a contract for 25 percent of the profit. He said I'll tell you what, anytime the yard is open your welcome to go through it and as far as exclusive access, he didn't think anyone had ever asked to go through it but if anyone does ask he would say that they have arrangements for it. As far as payment he doesn't think that the 25 percent I offered would even equal what it costs for "garbage services" so he said to keep it. Sorry this was long winded but I wanted everyone to know that the gold silver and platinum that were looking for...is trash to a metal recycling company because it needs to be taken apart and processed. Given that places like game stop and fix a phone is selling there e waste now it's been hard to find a steady supply of things to go through to find boards but now I know that that stuff I'm offering to pay small business for is being offered for free to save big businesses money on their trash bill. It obviously doesn't go for all businesses but I figured I'd share my revelation with yall. It might be dumb or obvious but I figured it might give someone ideas about possible sources of free material. Thank you for reading and thank you for welcoming me to the community.
