That is always the case. At best it is a make work job for everyone in that recycling stream. If it made financial sense, people would do it without using tax money (like collecting aluminum cans and the scrap metal we are talking about). There are places where scrap paper has some small value but only if you are near a place where it can be reprocessed into a product. You would be trucking it past pulpwood farms to get to a place like that here and the diesel to get the there costs more than the pulp wood.
Making work for people is stupid. If there isn't enough work to go round, don't create more work, give each person less work. Divide the sensible work evenly between everybody.
I dont make a habit of picking up junk, but twice a year a local town has "junk day". People can throw away anything except tires and tv sets and a few other things. They pile the junk on the curbs on Friday and it's all picked up by Sat. afternoon. During that 24 hour period, there are a bunch of people who drive around and grab all the good stuff. Some of them continue doing it late into the night. Knowing from the past that I've gotten quite a bit of useful stuff, I go out early on Friday and just drive around. I've come home with lawn mowers, snow blowers etc., that only need minor work. New building materials that are just left over from jobs, like lumber, bundles of shingles, and so on. Used but good sinks, cabinets, and the list goes on.
They just recently did that. I went to the wealthy side of town first, and got a perfectly good picnic table and chair set, made of metal with a glass top on the table. Aside from a few minor spots of rust, it's perfect. I got a around 150 brand new picture frames still wrapped in their packaging, (which I'll sell to a local guy who sells at flea markets), got one of those expensive park-like benches made with cast iron legs and back, which just needs some new boards on the seat. (heck, I got lots of scrap treated wood to fix that). I also got a few gas cans, an electric guitar which works fine but needs a few strings, several rakes and shovels, a wheerlbarrow that only needs a tire, a few windows, and more....
But my biggest find was a MIG welder, which appears to work, except I dont have the gas that is needed to use it, but it feeds wire and will throw an arc. (I've never used one of them, I only stick weld, but I'll have a friend who welds look at it and if it's worthwhile, I'll buy some gas for it).
Total cost to get all this stuff was about $10 worth of gas to drive around, and I have to admit I had a lot of fun doing it.
What surprised me were the guys who were still doing it (with flashlights) at 2am, when I left the local bar.
attached to a gearbox for both swinging and sliding door operators. If I had a bad motor that was beyond simple maintenance, I'd ship it to Southern Winding Service. The folks there have a lot of expertise when it comes to rewinding motors of any size. Of course, I had a few spare motors. ^_^
It would probably cost several times the cost of the jigsaw to get the motor rewound.
I thought about that, and I looked up the welder online. I found the manual. It's a Clarke 100E MK2. According to the instructions, it's ONLY made for use with the gas. The models ending in "EN" can be used with flux core. Actually, I cant understand why the flux core wont work in ANY of these welders???
I know that gas is expensive, and I'd probably have to lease the tank too. In all honesty, if I do have to get the gas, I'll probably sell the welder on Craigslist. I dont weld that much stuff, but on a farm, there is always something that needs to be welded. I have gotten by for years with my stick welder, and if I cant do it with that, I'd rather just pay the local welding shop to do it. Even if the gas lasts me a few years, for the little welding I do, if I have to pay a yearly tank lease, it's probably not worth it.
I guess I just dont know enough about wire welding (MIG welding) to know if I can use flux core with it or not. I've never claimed to be a welder, but I can usually fix the heavy ferrous metals with my stick welder, even if it's not the nicest looking job. But welding thin metals (like a car body), is impossible with a stick welder. I was told these MIG welders work well for thinner stuff like that.
A friend has a van with tv and all the luxury stuff. To run all that stuff, his alternator is a special high amperage model. His alternator died, and he went to several auto parts stores. They said that it's a special alternator and is not stocked. It could be special ordered for around $170, (for a NEW alternator), and would take up to a week to get it.
He took it to a motor rebuilding shop instead. It took them almost 2 weeks to finish it, because the front bearing had gone out and chewed up the housing. So, they had to order a new front housing. When they finished, it cost him about $240. He said that's the last time he will take anything there....
If you walked into a motor rewinding shop with a consumer grade jig saw motor they would laugh you out into the street. These guys do big industrial motors that are worth their time. We did have a shop in Ft Myers that rewound Delco alternator stators in their spare time but only the most popular model and it was a swap out deal.
Business contact of mine has a boat, with alternator on the engine. The story is nearly the same. The local rebuild shop was hundred and some dollars. Amazon (dot com) had one for 65, postage included.
I had similar moment with rechargable drills. My first chargable drills have been Skil 2230. One time I went to buy a replacement battery pack, which was about $28.50. Home Depot had new ones for $20. It was a very sad moment, but I did buy the new one.
You can be virtually guaranteed the $170 unit was also a rebuild. - just one rebuilt on an assembly line of workers who knew nothing of it's operation or constructiom beyond the "place part A inside part B"
The cost of parts is usually the killer. Two years ago at work I bought a pump and motor assembly for $2050. Just had the pump portion rebuilt for $1950, motor not touched.
In my many years in the automotive business, most NEW were in the $400-600 range, with rebuilts around 95-150. Of course it could be a "new" chinese knock-off in which case you may be farther ahead with a rebuild.
The way things are going now, I often wonder how much of the new cars are made in other countries. What used to be a China knock-off may well be OEM now. Maybe not from China , but another country which is just about as bad.
Seems like the stuff from China is sort of like from Japan years ago. Cheep and not well made, but as they keep sending stuff over the quality seems to be improving in some areas.
Some of the repair parts seem to be a ripoff. About 15 years ago on my Toyota a sensor went bad. I think it was the mass air flow. The cost was around $ 500. That seemed totally out of line in what something like that should cost. I bet the thing cost about $ 20 to make.
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