Lockdown Life–Waste Management

Youtube has taken a bit of a hammering over the last few weeks, as I desperately try to avoid mainstream media’s doom-laden news.  I have long enjoyed a series of videos posted by members of the metal scrapping community in the United States.  They drive around towns on bin days to pick up unwanted scrap metal that they sell to their local scrapyard.   Some have also branched out into resale and flea markets, so they also ‘garbage pick’ to see if any goodies have been discarded that they can sell.   It’s all good fun, but that sort of thing is not really allowed over here.  Shame.  It works in the USA as many places allow people to put out larger items with their rubbish, rather than having to either cram it all into one wheelie bin, taking it to the local tip or paying to have it removed as we do here.  I guess they don’t have a fly-tipping problem in the US either.  I’ve long maintained that if we made it easier, not harder, to dispose of waste then we wouldn’t need to spend so much public money clearing up messes and prosecuting people.  The cost of disposal of trade waste is scandalous and should be reviewed now we’re out of the EU.

One effect of the lockdown has been the closure of the local tip for the best part of 3 months.  It’s now reopened, but due to high demand (who saw that coming – duh?), the council has instituted an appointment system – thus rendering it about as useful as it was when it was closed.  They only slowly release slots for the next 48 hours each day and, like supermarket shopping deliveries at the start of lockdown, they get snapped up in seconds!  No doubt more fly-tipping will result….

Sermon over.

If you’re interested, here’s three of my current favourite scrapping/garbage picking  Youtube channels.  Enjoy!

Scrap and Pallet Man – Paul operates in and around DeKalb in Illinois.  He vlogs about scrapping, and his struggles with being a fallible human being (he lost everything to drug addiction but is now recovering), trying to be a good father and helping the community.  It sounds like it might be a bit of a dull watch but he’s actually very interesting to listen to, kind, musically gifted and funny to boot.

Taco Stacks – if Taco lived near me, I’d adopt him.  He’s a hard-working young man, socially awkward but sincere, and lives in rural Pennsylvania about 70 miles north of Philadelphia.  He scraps, sells at flea markets and also does ‘thrifting’ – buying second-hand college sportswear at thrift (charity) stores and selling online for a profit.  He has more of a sardonic sense of humour than S&P Man, but I so admire Taco’s drive and work ethic.  Oh, and he has the most gorgeous Golden Retriever I have ever seen, called Salsa (of course).

Paper and Moose – a young lady called Renee from the Pennsylvania/New Jersey border, she is friends with Taco Stacks and collects ephemera and vintage clothes and ‘stuff’ from flea markets, rummage (jumble) sales and garbage picking.  She has a real connection with the items she picks up and doesn’t just see them as commodities to sell.  I suspect she ends up keeping more than she sells.  And why not?