Much cheaper than solar panels

[Eric Johnson]

I remember back in the late '70s and early '80s when you put your bundles of old newspapers and other paper waste on the curb, guys would come along and nab it before the city had a chance to collect it. The stuff is probably worth even more now, but apparently we're too well-off to bother.

I've been squashing and saving up aluminum catfood cans. Over time it might add up to something. I'm not sure our municipailty does anything with the "recycling" we put out other than toss it into the landfill, so I'd rather capitalize on the high cost of aluminum and other metals at some point in the future, rather than see it go to waste today.

 

[elkimmeg]

start saving copper a roll of 14/2 250' last year was about 15-$17 yesterday at the supply house $103
10 ' 1/2"L copper pipe $26 per section. Common copper 1/2" elbows $1.50 each The electrician just roughed in my
12/16 three season room total job quote including a 12 slot sub feeder pannel and electric baseboard heat $ 2,200
10 /3 250' roll of wire $365./ A lot of plumbers are switching to pex tubing, so much cheaper now. Why? blame Kathrina but the scrap copper is being bought up and sent to China. After re- processed it enters the world market. We are not the only ones in demand.
Only a fraction of our scrap is returning to USA. Did you know a gallon of automotive antifreeze sells for $25 in India?

 

[begreen]

They use antifreeze in India?

 

[elkimmeg]

Anti freeze is also used to prevent over heating. I also believe there are some Mountains Called Hymilayers that might get a Bit cold

 

[Eric Johnson]

LOL, that 250 feet of 1" copper I bought three years ago to do my boiler is starting to look pretty cheap. Maybe I should replace it with Pex and cash in. I've got a big box full of copper & brass odds and ends, shot fittings and other copper scrap. Seems like I never throw anything away.

 

[fbelec]

elk i knew you were going to say they gring up brush and small trees. what a waste. it's like throwing a couple of gallons of #2 oil in the trash. we have that same stupity of 4 barrels per house sometimes that hard to do. we recycle everything we can. here's a good one. 6 months ago they stopped taking our recycle bins and bags. i called and they said thay the man refused to take it because he seen foam from meat packages. they are marked recycle #7. they are suppose to pickup everything up to #7. so now i have to trow in the trash. soon enough i think there going to stop trash pickup all together. what good is picking up i barrel. they are going to make people start burning it again. because there is no place to put it. don't get me wrong there are not going to tell people to burn it but that how people will get rid of it.

 

[elkimmeg]

Brush is dropped off and every day.A big front end loader pushes it into a pile. At that point. it is impossible to get at
the useable hardwoods. When the pile grows to large proportions, Everything is then chipped up. I bet 20 plus cords
were turned into chips. Where the chips go I don't know. All towns are facing budget short falls, its either approve an override,
or start cutting back employees and services. The schools are last to suffer any cuts. Heaven forbid your Johnny has to have a class size of more than 22. Or pre schoolers have Spanish cut. Our dept was asked to cut another 5% this year again.
After 3 years of cutting there are only so many paper clips to eliminate. Laws govern out inspections, inspections cost are suposed to equal services rendered. We turned over $285K beyond expenses and salaries. My question to the finance committee was if we reduce hours or staff, We will not be able to turn over the same vollume read $$$ as quickly. Would you be happy is we cut back 30,000 and only be able to turn over less than 200k? Meaning what you are asking us to do, is it worth another potential 100k short fall? We opened up the books for all to see and asked the committee if they could find surplusses that we could cut? They want 5% cut. We are still waiting the justification behind their decision. They have not yet recomended any areas they find surpluses.
So it goes round and round. This is going on in every town. Insurance increases and fuel cost have excalated beyond tax essesments and revenues collected. We have a 2.5 tax law. Taxes can go up only 2.5 % each year. That is fine when the state is gererous with aid. But not now the fed gov is not as gererous to states and in turn the states to the local towns. when insurance increases 15% a year and fuel cost 35% all towns are in trouble

 

[fbelec]

what a shame. 20 plus cords is like throwing 3000 dollars out in the trash.