Trash becomes treasure-recycling pays!!!

tnt-hunter

Bronze Member
Apr 20, 2018
1,778
9,021
Mountain Maryland
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
9
Detector(s) used
Fisher CZ-21, Minelab Equinix 800, ,Garret AT Pro,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
When we detect we find lots of trash too. A lot of that trash is recyclable metal. After a hunt I sort my metal into buckets 1-ferrous, 2-aluminum, 3-copper/brass/ lead and 4-trash. Periodically I go through the buckets and check to do a final sort and clean up. The clean up is not to remove dirt (I do get the worst of the dirt off but I don’t wash the stuff) but to be sure there are no unwanted pieces like steel screws in aluminum sheeting etc. I have recycled a good bit in the past. Recently because the weather was not fit for detecting I did a final sort and today I took a load to the scrap yard. Now some of this metal is recent and some has been waiting a good while but my totals for today are:

55 pounds of #2 copper
32 pounds of aluminum cans (I take these in regularly)
84 pounds of scrap aluminum
16 pounds of brass cartridge casings
145 pounds of lead (@ 10 years worth)
97 pounds of yellow brass

The total cash return was $521.70. It takes a little time to sort and prepare but well worth the effort. Since I got the money today I am calling this today’s find for my post. No pictures of the pile of junk, I didn’t think it was needed for this one. I have a big pile (a pick up truck load) of buckets full of ferrous metal I will take in in the spring after things warm up. The other stuff was stored inside so it was easy to deal with in the winter.

So you can help preserve our natural resources and keep room in the landfill for stuff we can’t recycle and make a little spending money in the process. Thanks for looking, stay safe, good luck and may your coil lead you to good things.
 

Upvote 22

Back-of-the-boat

Gold Member
Apr 18, 2013
6,864
8,454
California
Detector(s) used
AT GOLD/Garrett /C.Scope cs4PI/Garrett(carrot) pro pointer/ 5x8 double d coil and sniper coil/Lesche digger/Lesche "T" handle shovel.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I don't have a good place to store scrap, but when I did, I got annoyed with my recyclers because here in Commiefornia they have a hold on copper and brass, Meaning they hold payout for so many days, even on shell casings which makes NO sense and I live about 40 miles from that type of recycler, so I have them mail me the check, which they charge me even more for that:BangHead:.
 

jewelerguy

Gold Member
Jun 28, 2011
11,411
8,857
Oklahoma
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
White's XLT
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Good return on your efforts. I'm a firm believer in recycling and I wish all communities would do it, and do it for the good of the planet instead of doing it so some company can get rich from it. When I was a kid in middle school back in the mid-70's, I was assigned the task to write a several page report on pollution. Even with the limited means of research I had available back then, what I did find was a real eye opener for me. I happened to earn an A+ on my report. Some years ago my small town here in Oklahoma began to participate in recycling because the trash company services most all of the towns in a large radius around us and takes it all to one huge central land fill. Apparently during the covid debacle the recycling company went out of business and no longer exists but the trash company is still charging us a recycling fee while taking everything to the one central dump again. I'm not so much concerned with the fee as I am that the actual recycling effort is gone. Plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade. Humans really should learn to do better
 

E-Trac-Ohio

Gold Member
Feb 9, 2020
5,839
10,659
Eastern Ohio
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Minelab E-Trac
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Well done !

I have a plastic coffee can in my detecting box. I've always separated my dug copper and brass and taken it to the local scrap metal dealer at the end of the year. I never get that much money for it (usually $40.00 to $50.00 a year) that I use to buy Monster energy drinks and Pepperoni sticks to take on my hunts. :tongue11:
 

tamrock

Gold Member
Jan 16, 2013
14,804
29,370
Colorado
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter Tracker IV
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
In my many years of travel across the interstates and state highways, I've seen a lot of scrap metal off to the side of the roads. Seems like every place I'd stop to relieve myself 😌 there's always aluminum cans, tire weights and vehicle wreckage every now and then. Once I came by what looked like large pieces of an aluminum tanker that may of crashed and got torn up. It made me wonder how much in dollar value is out there along the highways across this country.
 

Gare

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2012
7,332
13,805
Canton Ohio Area
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Presently using Deus 2's & have Minelabs, Nokta's Tesoro's DEus's Have them all . Have WAY to many need to get rid of some
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
When we detect we find lots of trash too. A lot of that trash is recyclable metal. After a hunt I sort my metal into buckets 1-ferrous, 2-aluminum, 3-copper/brass/ lead and 4-trash. Periodically I go through the buckets and check to do a final sort and clean up. The clean up is not to remove dirt (I do get the worst of the dirt off but I don’t wash the stuff) but to be sure there are no unwanted pieces like steel screws in aluminum sheeting etc. I have recycled a good bit in the past. Recently because the weather was not fit for detecting I did a final sort and today I took a load to the scrap yard. Now some of this metal is recent and some has been waiting a good while but my totals for today are:

55 pounds of #2 copper
32 pounds of aluminum cans (I take these in regularly)
84 pounds of scrap aluminum
16 pounds of brass cartridge casings
145 pounds of lead (@ 10 years worth)
97 pounds of yellow brass

The total cash return was $521.70. It takes a little time to sort and prepare but well worth the effort. Since I got the money today I am calling this today’s find for my post. No pictures of the pile of junk, I didn’t think it was needed for this one. I have a big pile (a pick up truck load) of buckets full of ferrous metal I will take in in the spring after things warm up. The other stuff was stored inside so it was easy to deal with in the winter.

So you can help preserve our natural resources and keep room in the landfill for stuff we can’t recycle and make a little spending money in the process. Thanks for looking, stay safe, good luck and may your coil lead you to good things.
TNT you are a GIANT ASSET to the
Detecting community. If people KNEW how much you cleaned uip areas more people would let people detecftt. THANK YOU for what you DO !!!
 

Last edited:
OP
OP
tnt-hunter

tnt-hunter

Bronze Member
Apr 20, 2018
1,778
9,021
Mountain Maryland
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
9
Detector(s) used
Fisher CZ-21, Minelab Equinix 800, ,Garret AT Pro,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
TNT you are a GIANT ASSET to the

Detecting community. If people KNEW how much you cleaned uip areas more people would let people detecftt. THANK YOU for what you DO !!!
Thanks Gare you are very kind to say so.

I don't have a good place to store scrap, but when I did, I got annoyed with my recyclers because here in Commiefornia they have a hold on copper and brass, Meaning they hold payout for so many days, even on shell casings which makes NO sense and I live about 40 miles from that type of recycler, so I have them mail me the check, which they charge me even more for that:BangHead:.
Sorry things are so tough for you out there. Sometimes the more the government tries to improve things the worse they get. It sounds like their policies are actually discouraging recycling.

TO ALL: Good luck, stay safe and keep swingin.
 

Kype

Full Member
Mar 4, 2019
187
379
New Jersey
Detector(s) used
Tesoro tejon/Garret AT pro
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
nice job. its like you dug up an old wallet that had $521.70 inside it. technically you are getting paid to metal detect.
 

Lenrac2

Silver Member
Apr 1, 2021
2,758
6,371
Illinois
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Denise-Nokta Legend/Garrett Apex Nox600
Bob-AT Max/ Nox800
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Congrats on your nice return!! I am trying to start and have a bucket for copper. I will have to step it up!! Great job!
 

Digger RJ

Gold Member
Aug 24, 2017
19,263
33,375
SW Missouri/Oklahoma
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030; Minelab Equinox 800;
XP Deus 2
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
When we detect we find lots of trash too. A lot of that trash is recyclable metal. After a hunt I sort my metal into buckets 1-ferrous, 2-aluminum, 3-copper/brass/ lead and 4-trash. Periodically I go through the buckets and check to do a final sort and clean up. The clean up is not to remove dirt (I do get the worst of the dirt off but I don’t wash the stuff) but to be sure there are no unwanted pieces like steel screws in aluminum sheeting etc. I have recycled a good bit in the past. Recently because the weather was not fit for detecting I did a final sort and today I took a load to the scrap yard. Now some of this metal is recent and some has been waiting a good while but my totals for today are:

55 pounds of #2 copper
32 pounds of aluminum cans (I take these in regularly)
84 pounds of scrap aluminum
16 pounds of brass cartridge casings
145 pounds of lead (@ 10 years worth)
97 pounds of yellow brass

The total cash return was $521.70. It takes a little time to sort and prepare but well worth the effort. Since I got the money today I am calling this today’s find for my post. No pictures of the pile of junk, I didn’t think it was needed for this one. I have a big pile (a pick up truck load) of buckets full of ferrous metal I will take in in the spring after things warm up. The other stuff was stored inside so it was easy to deal with in the winter.

So you can help preserve our natural resources and keep room in the landfill for stuff we can’t recycle and make a little spending money in the process. Thanks for looking, stay safe, good luck and may your coil lead you to good things.
Very Cool!!! Congrats!!!
 

Back-of-the-boat

Gold Member
Apr 18, 2013
6,864
8,454
California
Detector(s) used
AT GOLD/Garrett /C.Scope cs4PI/Garrett(carrot) pro pointer/ 5x8 double d coil and sniper coil/Lesche digger/Lesche "T" handle shovel.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
In my many years of travel across the interstates and state highways, I've seen a lot of scrap metal off to the side of the roads. Seems like every place I'd stop to relieve myself 😌 there's always aluminum cans, tire weights and vehicle wreckage every now and then. Once I came by what looked like large pieces of an aluminum tanker that may of crashed and got torn up. It made me wonder how much in dollar value is out there along the highways across this country.
Being a trucker I agree I see the same.
 

ANTIQUARIAN

Gold Member
Apr 24, 2010
12,841
27,384
Upper Canada 🇨🇦
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
XP Deus, Lesche Piranha 35 Shovel & 'Garrett Carrot'
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
I too get a warm feeling inside when I take the metal I find to the 'scrapper'.
Of course... sometimes it's just the frozen pizza I ate the night before. :laughing7:
Dave
 

Last edited:

Heavygold4me

Sr. Member
Jan 27, 2020
404
1,245
South mississippi
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Nox 800 , Nox 600, Excalibur II, manticore
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
I keep a bucket in the back of my truck for lead, recently some jack wad has been hitting golf balls into the ocean. The other day I picked up 27 that were rolling around in the water. I’m sure golf balls never break down and disappear .
 

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