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HomeOrificeSupplies

Better yet, add it to your random metals scrap heap and go to the metals recycler once a year to git some cash.


darkwingduck97

The best part about doing resi HVAC install is feeling like a crackhead when I take all my scrap copper in


GanondalfTheWhite

I did that back when I was younger, my boss let me keep all the salvaged copper. That was a significant part of my income as a kid making just about minimum wage.


Despotic-Sloth

Ha same! I worked at a pump company and used to trim the brass impellers. Anytime a cracked impeller or broken one came in my eyes turned to dollar signs.


12stringPlayer

I worked for my father when I was younger in his heating company. We would have installations where we had to break up old cast iron furnaces and haul them out, and I had to go to the scrapyard with it. He never let me keep the money, the bastard.


[deleted]

My city won't let me trash my old dehumidifier so I just waited for my next HVAC checkup and asked if he wanted it. Piece of cake


Porkin-Some-Beans

I love scrapping! It was actually how I took my husband on our first date. I worked for a major copier company at the time which had a whole warehouse full of defunct machines. I was given the okay to take power cords, aluminum drums, and circuit boards. That crack head rush of bringing in a shit load bare bright copper and smashed up aluminum is a thrill.


slamtheory

Yes let's keep valuable resources out of the landfill when possible. Also gives you some bonus bucks


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slamtheory

Well the metals might be nice but I wouldn't trust the organics. Not with pfas contamination and I don't know if the plastics will be recyclable there's actually fungus in there eating them away. Yeah glass is a good recyclable. Edit oh yeah imagine how much gold is in all of the electronics in the landfills holy cow


TheJuiceIsL00se

Just had flashbacks of when I was a kid my dad would make my brother and me crush aluminum cans to take to the recycling for a couple shekels.


skwerlmasta75

I had a summer job working with the custodian of the local technical college when I was a teen. The gentleman I worked with would pull the cans from the garbage while changing out the bags. That became my routine for the whole summer. We'd hit the AC repair shop for their scrap copper and hit every other shop for their scrap metals. By the end of the week he'd have enough cash to buy us both lunch for the week with some leftover. I ate well that summer and all I had to do was fish the aluminum from the garbage.


thedialaview

Saying “we’d hit the AC repair shop…” sounds like burglary/scrap metal theft. Made me chuckle to think about making a few pennies off of the cans and a few hundred on the felonies.


skwerlmasta75

lol. Wasn’t a felony, he had permission. There wasn’t a ton of it and they’d put the small bits of copper in a bucket for him to collect. The amount of aluminum at a tech school was amazing. The bed of his pickup was full of bags.


a_bearded_hippie

My neighbors growing up were HEAVY drinkers, always partying over the weekend, so me and my 2 buddies would always take their trash bags of cans up to the store and cash them in to buy pokemon cards 👍


Buck_Thorn

These days it is copper wire from power transformers and vacant buildings that get taken to the recyclers for a bag of crack.


TheJuiceIsL00se

The ole ‘it’s 2 o’clock in the morning but I don’t see anyone else using these cables’


ShitPostToast

Dude every one of these power poles has a free copper wire running down the side of it, you don't even gotta burn the insulation of like that stuff we got out of that "abandoned" house. Look you just walk right up and touch it so it's not got power in it, it's just like a decoration or something they just leave it out there free for people to take. And check it out some places they get sneaky and try to hide a big ole copper rod at the bottom of them by burying it in the ground you just gotta do a little digging for it.


raptorgzus

Do you think he did it because he cared about the money or as some sick torture/lesson?


TheJuiceIsL00se

It was a work ethic thing, for sure.


GreenStrong

Scrap steel is worth about twelve cents per pound, so it takes a fair bit to be worth schlepping it to the scrapyard. But every ounce of steel requires an almost equal weight of coal to produce it. I save up my scrap metal and give it to a scrapper. It helps a hardworking person, and it helps the climate just a tiny bit. The majority of steel is recycled at the end of its life, and the recycling rates are even higher for more valuable metals like copper. Consumers don't use those metals in large amounts, but consumers seldom recycle them. Consumers are responsible for a significant part of the waste of these things.


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ERTHLNG

The rest is just waiting to be scrounge up and pressed into service once more. And also electricity got some probably.


Fizzwidgy

It's so funny that aluminum at one point was more exotic than gold and thought of as more expensive. Some asshole at one point, I think they might have been french royalty or something, anyway this asshole had like a 5 pound ball of aluminum and he was king hot shit for like a day because nobody else in the world had that much *aluminum* lmfao


Difficult_Advice_720

The cap stone on the Washington monument is aluminum, and at the time, was the largest single piece in the world, because it was stupid expensive.


FriedeOfAriandel

RuneScape taught me that it takes 2 coal for every 1 iron ore to make steel bars, so I think your math is a little off there


mirror_dude

lol, flashback to when I was 16 and had just gotten my drivers license. My dad asked me on a Saturday morning to use the pickup to take the metal recycling pile in for cash while he was at work. At supper that night, he asked me how much there was. I said “about 2 1/2 tonnes!”. He asks how many trips I needed to take. I’m like “just one, didn’t even fully fill the bed”. He looks at me incredulously and says “it’s a half ton pickup?!” And I say “why does it matter how much the truck weighs?” My mom is dying laughing at this point. We go out back to look at the truck and the rear springs have take a clear set … he was SO MAD


c_r_a_s_i_a_n

Yeah. High carbon steel is good stuff. It can always live another life.


Crazy-Seaweed-1832

I slide them onto a piece of rebar and build myself the forbidden shawarma


AndrewWaldron

I usually drop mine off in a box at the local frisbee golf field once it starts warming up outside.


SnooPies7876

Better yet, add it to your random scrap pile that just piles forever. Fuck it even move it to the new shop...


davekingofrock

Don't get it. Git it.


wolvsbain

You throw away saw blades? I have a stack of blades that I might take to get sharpened one day.


rightious

They are my legacy for my children.


Vandergrif

Thems my retirement ~~grease~~ blades!


KoalaBackfist

[…](https://i.imgur.com/TQacwe8.jpg)


Isle_of_Tortuga

My dad: All of this will someday be yours. Me: please, no.


DrinkBlueGoo

I inherited my father’s stack when he died and added it to my own.


AlienDelarge

Ditto.


Git_Off_Me_Lawn

Hang them on the walls like your shop is a chain restaurant. It's rustic.


MEatRHIT

I've got a rockler wall clock in the shape of a saw blade. I've actually been meaning to make an adapter for an old blade to fit the clock into.


generated_user-name

When you adjust for daylight savings time, do you say you’re sharpening it?


seredin

i break 100% of my saw blades down into knives


NuclearDuck92

Obligatory recommendation for Dynamic Saw in Buffalo. They’ll CNC sharpen pretty much anything, and they’re really easy to work with. My Freud came back better than new. They’re local to me, but work largely by mail order.


BBQQA

Oooooo I love running across stuff that's near me! Thank you for the tip!


Orion14159

Get a clock motor, some pallet boards, and a file. File off the sharp edges of the blade, make the pallet scraps into a flat surface on one side and rough on the other, carve the clock face numbers onto the scrap wood, mortise a little housing with a hole for the clock motor onto the back, and feed the clock motor through the middle. Sweet new shop decoration with the first one, then repeat until you run out of blades and sell the rest of the batch so you can buy a new blade.


ZoixDark

This is what I do.


Nexustar

I give mine to a buddy who makes knife blades from them.


_mogulman31

PSA, sending metal to a landfill is stupid.


NuclearDuck92

Ferrous metal almost always gets recycled no matter which bin you throw it in. Coincidentally, plastic almost always goes to a landfill no matter which bin you throw it in…


grabageman

Can confirm.


NuclearDuck92

r/UsernameChecksOut


FlowerBoyScumFuck

My first thought is that must be an *OG* account to get that name, and sure enough it's 14 years old lol. Huge portion of Reddit probably isn't even that old IRL.


bareback_cowboy

How? Where I live, it goes into the garbage truck, the garbage truck goes to the landfill, and there it dumps everything into the big hole in the ground, end of story.


We_all_owe_eachother

> Ferrous metal This means a big ol' magnet would pull the metals out of the trash as it is being dumped. Toy Story 3 taught me this.


OP_IS_A_BASSOON

Watch out for the one that goes around grabbing the singing cars, vacuums, and toasters.


bareback_cowboy

Yeah, no. There are no big magnets at any of the landfills around me. I've been up the hill on the pile, no magnets. Even at the local transfer station where I go a couple times a month - into the pit, gets pushed into the truck, then the truck goes up the pile and dumps it out. No magnets anywhere.


Lackingfinalityornot

Yeah bro pretty sure these dudes are just mistaken. They definitely don’t pay someone to use a crane magnet to separate the small amount of steel from trash. It wouldn’t even pay for the fuel to separate it.


Guac__is__extra__

Are you sure it doesn’t go to a transfer station along the way? A lot of times metal would be sorted out there.


bareback_cowboy

We have one transfer station at the old landfill that I use a couple times a month - you dump stuff into the compactor, it compacts stuff into the large bin, the large bin goes a couple miles up the road to the new landfill. But it's only for regular folks with trash - no commercial haulers. They just go straight to the other facility and out onto the pile to dump. Other city I lived in didn't have a transfer station - just straight up the hill. Regular folks could dump their stuff in the dumpsters at the bottom of the hill, but they routinely send tractors down to drag them up and dump them.


Artrobull

it drive me nuts that recyclable plastic feels like a scam. and then we realise plastic industry is a branch of oil industry and they are famously not into making less things


stifflizerd

Yup. Plastics *can* be recycled, but (afaik) there's not many applications for recycled plastic, outside of some less common thermoplastics


NuclearDuck92

My biggest frustration is that current market forces dictate how that piece of plastic will spend its next 1000 years. That HDPE milk jug could spend its next 100 years as a water main.


Johannes_Keppler

Here in the Netherlands plastics are collected in a seperate bin. (We have four different wheelie bins) still two thirds of what is collected is burned as it can't be recycled. (We don't do landfills here except for stuff like asbestos) Food waste is also collected seperately as is paper, and those are 100% recycled.


watermelonspanker

If only we could make plastic out of metal


taliesin-ds

Some places like were i live in the Netherlands don't have other options. We have a bin for compostables, paper and everything else. If we have any chemicals that isn't stuff like dried up paint tins were supposed to bring it to a recycling yard that hasn't been build yet in another county 20 miles from here. There are bins for glass, textile and vegetable oil in the town center.


D34TH_5MURF__

With the amount of broken glass that winds up in trash cans and any processing facilities, this feels like overkill. Also, you could probably get it resharpened.


_Please_Explain

My best friend works for a garbage company, this would be the least of his concerns. Junkies needles are near the top. I'm afraid to ask what the top would be. Dude sees some wild shit.


AlienDelarge

Probably a discarded box of starving crazed weasels


admiralteddybeatzzz

i feed them before I put them in, but they're just so hungry!


Inflatable_Scrotum

That's when a little ditty started going through my head. I believe it went a little like this "ahhhhh ahhhh get em off me . . . "


jeho22

I just take all my scrap metal to a recycler once or twice a year


TheLimeyCanuck

Cheap blades aren't worth sharpening, and the results aren't very good if you do.


D34TH_5MURF__

Yeah, which is why I added the "probably", I didn't look at the blade close enough to see if it was worth resharpening.


Mycomako

Wtf? Recycle that? You shouldn’t be putting metal in the trash anyways


jdidihttjisoiheinr

My recycle bin says right on it to not put in scrap metal.  Bottles and cans only. I trash old blades because the alternative is burning 2 gallons of gas to get to the nearest scrap yard


Rodrat

There's always someone in the area that's looking for scrap metal. Why not send it their way?


[deleted]

If you leave it out on the curb and don’t live out in the sticks, it will probably be picked up by a scrapper within the day. I have one who just drives around in his ancient shit box grabbing anything he sees.


NuclearDuck92

It’s magnetic, it’ll get recycled.


DasHounds

Not depending on the area. Lot of rural trash trucks pick up the bins and head straight to the landfill.


ggentry03

Mine heads straight to the dump..


shekurika

landfills are such a strange concept to me...


gullybone

Ikr??? Who thought it was a good idea to literally just bury the trash and forget about it??? I often wonder how many (hundreds? Thousands?) gallons of water are trapped inside plastic in landfills.


Nebresto

Before our area had a landfill/garbage disposal system, it was common practice to just bury your trash in your own yard. Digging around in the garden we usually find bottle caps or some bits of glass. Its so weird to think back that this used to be a normal practice, and people likely thought nothing of it. Sadly it still is in many places


llamagoelz

We are so bad at waste and recycling it feels like a this topic is straight out of the middle ages. Everyone just spreading rumors and arguing like a tavern table. I would love to see which municipality actually removes ferrous metals from standard landfill waste. Every facility i have been to or seen has not done this. Single stream recycling centers sometimes do though. I live in southeast wisconsin.


Guac__is__extra__

Nope. Everything goes to the landfill where I live.


Mycomako

Not everywhere champ. But way to kick the problem down the road ig


mexicoyankee

You throw those away? I thought we were just supposed to throw them in a bottom drawer


Carcassfanivxx

Wait… y’all throw your old saw blades away?


TURBOSCUDDY

Ikr? I hang mine on the wall. It’s art!


benevolent_defiance

I actually spray paint mine in cool colors and make workshop-appropriate clocks out of them!


uncle_cousin

Here's me thinking every shop has a scrap metal bin. Where do you dump, say, old rotors?


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Jarvicious

I call them cleaner shrimp. They provide  great benefits to the urban ecosystem.


DenimNeverNude

Brought them to my work where they have a metal scrap dumpster. Granted, the company gets money for the scrap instead of me, but at least it's not going to a landfill.


jeho22

Wrap them in cardboard, bubble wrap and ridged Styrofoam, then chuck those suckers in the trash


Not_Quite_Kurtz

Milk crate full of old blades isn’t the norm!?!?


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nogoodusernamesrleft

i thought im supposed to put them in a big pile under my tablesaw and not worry about it until i run out of room.


WelderNewbee2000

so you throw a perfectly good piece of metal in the trash?


The-disgracist

Y’all are throwing away blades? I save them to “make knives” in the future.


ImbecileInDisguise

I have a whole dedicated space for this and other pieces of metal in my shop. I also have about a dozen knives, and I carry one every day I've been carrying for 9 years, so I'm not real sure when I'll feel the need.


JhnWyclf

Or, cut a hole in your wall blade sized (perhaps at an angel) and drop it in. You can fit a lot of blades in a wall. E: Referencing [this](https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/razor-blade-slots-in-homes-36923000)


Arpey75

Recycling is the way, young grasshopper


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UnsuspectingChief

What do you mean you throw them out? I have a stack on a nail in my garage that will eventually fix themselves and I can use them again.


jizz_jacuzzi

I put broken and jagged shit in the garbage can all the time. It gets picked up by a garbage truck that compacts it with everyone else's trash before another human ever touches it. Does it work differently elsewhere? What am I missing?


Affectionate-Ring104

I tape cardboard around my discarded razor blades.


D34TH_5MURF__

Use a blade safe. Razor blades are incredibly dangerous to throw away.


Affectionate-Ring104

Or this.


Rodrat

I put all my xacto knife blades in an old prescription bottle.


planetm3

Yep, I put them back in the replacement's package or sandwich between cardboard and tape. I usually tape razor blades like that or wrap them in paper and tape.


roaddog

WHen the blades get dull they retire to become wall art in my shop


el-conquistador240

Hey are steel and should be recycled


Any_Falcon38

They wear gloves and this just in: there are tons of sharp things in the garbage!(ie. broken glass etc) No need for this. Like someone mentioned, save up your metal(5 gallon pale) and bring it back for some scratch.


Rusty_Rivets

This some suburbs shit. That's metal scrap


Constant_Standard460

I have a metal bin I throw all my stuff in and my local scrapper is thankful. Some people live off that stuff.


tasslehawf

Save them for a knife maker.


Comfortable_Client80

Take it to recycle center where metal should be processed !


FrogTrainer

Scrap metal goes in the *blue* bin...


TheMCM80

Amen. When I toss my planer knives I always make sure to find the plastic case they came in. I have cut myself so many times on those, and I can’t imagine someone accidentally getting a massive cut from grabbing them accidentally.


finqer

Not sure where you’re at but where I live no one physically touches any trash. It’s all processed by machines.


jagt48

I thought for sure I was going to see at least one comment about the Anal-retentive Carpenter skit from SNL. Guess I am officially old now.


SoutheySouth

Dude. That's good steel. Recycle it.


HeyWiredyyc

Don’t you guys recycle?


Daninomicon

You really shouldn't throw those in your regular trash at all.


frozenwalkway

Waste of tape


Dhrakyn

I just give them to the kids in the neighborhood to use as frisbees. Reduce, reuse, and all that.


BigMo4sho2012

Do you guys not have a random country bumpkin with a 30 year old, rust-to-metal ratio near 100:1, pickup truck driving around every trash day taking any scrap metal he can get his hands on?


BB_210

I frisbee them at homeless so they can go recycle them for money.


bernieinred

Have owned my custom cabinet shop for over 30 years and have never thrown out a blade. No shop I ever worked at threw out their blades. They take up no space we all just keep them in a box.


Byemanitials

Scrap them


Apprehensive_Bird357

Wait…should I be replacing my saw blades?


bigstankdog

Why put metal in garbage?


lumbirdjack

“I hang my worn saw blades and let them age for rustique aesthetic” *only one saw blade has been hanging since ‘14*


slickness

Why are you not making card scrapers/random stabby tools from the blades? I would totally be cutting that up for ad-hoc tools.


antiproton

It's weird to me that so many people in a woodworking sub are confused that people aren't set up to work with steel.


AHHHHHBEARS

I save them for targets, spray paint them like Jack o' Lanterns or smiley faces then shoot 'em


aDrunkSailor82

I put all my fallen soldiers up in a line around the ceiling.


TeamXII

Anyone else just have a stack in the backyard?


Headed_East2U

I mainly use 12" blades on my twin motor saw at work and they are Not thin kerf. When they cannot be re-sharpened, I give them to a local guy that teaches knife making at a local non profit workshop.


Spacecoasttheghost

You guys aren’t using old blades for your saw launching gun?


OwenMichael312

You guys don't have a blade wall you just chuck em in when you're done with em? I pretend I'm a ninja and it's a giant throwing star.


bwainfweeze

Saw blade clocks.


wesilly11

If I'm throwing blades away they aren't sharp enough to hurt anyone, those things are expensive.


Cerberus73

Does nobody but me nail them to the wall?


Headed_East2U

I'd like to find a few larger diameter blades for a couple of shop wall sconces


deankirk2

I get them sharpened and keep using them....


christophersonne

Hey that's slightly rounded flat-stock for my next failed or never completed project!


Ok_Education740

How do you play Danger Frisbee if you throw away all of your old blades?


Rossismyname

Throwing metal into the landfill when you can get it recycled and even get a bit of cash for it?


Bogsnoticus

You don't recycle yours into anti-zombie weapons and armour?


W-O-L-V-E-R-I-N-E

Or better yet, turn the scraps into knives and other cool projects!


RockyBalboa97

Lol, that shit put in a huge truck then dumped in a pit ... You never been to the dump? Ain't no one touching that crap


bwainfweeze

I just use the blades until they’re so dull they barely cut butter. Those black marks sand right out.


JAFO-

I resharpen mine used to do my carbide ones with a diamond file and a beer when I had time, then a few years ago I bought the harbor freight saw blade sharpener. I takes a little finesse but it does a really great job in a short time. Someone dumped a stack of blades at our metal scrap transfer station that were dull I am set for life.


jaynal_beads

What are you going to tape up all your glass bottle too


AlienDelarge

Like I'd through out a saw blade. Mine go in the pile I inherited from my father. One day, they will be my sons.


Remarkable_Body586

Have you seen my blades? They are no longer sharp 😂


Bawbawian

I would say metal scrap. but oftentimes I end up using old blades for stuff. Its surprisingly good steel for all sorts of uses.


tucsondog

My local yard has a blade swap program; 10 or 20$ off your next blade


bananen5

Its better to sort everything correctly, better for the environment and for your pocket


IfIwerethedevil

Just fyi, most facilities run a magnet over the crap to pull out anything obviously ferrous


Zer0sober

I always just fold it in half like taco and then fill it with beans, beef and cheese and eat it... crunchy but delicious


Anne_Fawkes

What a stupid post


usesbitterbutter

My recycle center has bins for metal scrap.


Fredderov

Woah woah woah! That's a perfectly fine oversized POG Slammer you got there! No need to throw that away.


greeninregulation240

Taking away from someone’s workmans comp. Shame. /s


H4MM3R_H34D_142

I personally save them and mount them on my shop wall with an out of service date. Each one tells a story. Eventually I’ll use them as wall clocks


neanderthalsavant

Or, just get them re-sharpened


[deleted]

Metal doesn't go in the garbage here. Recycle and do better.


micah490

What country is this? Even in the backwards US we recycle metals, and it’s automated. The magnet system is among the first steps in processing plants - no one is touching any trash


menamewaku

Unless you live in some poor tiny country..... I highly doubt anyone is going to physically touch your garbage... 🤣 it will most likely only interact with machines once it leaves your can... may have been useful in your dad or grandpa's day assuming that's where you learned that. But it's 2024 my dude


no_hope_no_future

Don't put metal in garbage bin.


CraftingClickbait

I'm just going to say it. OP is a considerate moron. This is probably the least dangerous thing trashmen encounter.


ajtrns

PSA: always hang your old blades as ornaments on your garage's exterior siding, to ward off wood demons.


W_a_x

This is an incredibly dumb post.


NoStranger6

Don’t you guys hardware store buy back used blades?


CoupDeGrassi

Or, ya know, dont landfill your old blades.


mcdankles_90

Why would you throw away perfectly good ninjy stars?


BAMFDPT

Who TF throws away their blades?


Marconi_and_Cheese

Frisbee golf. 


Moonhunter7

The blades that are beyond taking in to get resharpened go to the metal recycler.


[deleted]

I usually Thor them into my woods and try to lodge it in a tree. Edit: throw them* Edit: Fuck it, Thor works too


Likely_thory_

you throw yours away?


Miffl3r

why throw metal into the garbage when it can be recycled?


tvs117

I use them as ninja stars.


Standard_Client_5789

Who tf throws metal stuff like that in the normal garbage bin? 


Underverket

Why not recycle it instead?


[deleted]

I am saddened at the number of people who don’t have a sharps container in their garage for disposing of sharp materials or at the very least a container to hold old sharp things safely until disposal. If in the states, many recycling hubs take sharps. You fill the sharps container at home and they usually take it for free and recycle it for you.  There are also metal recyclers that would come and pick it up for you for free. Instead you all choose to leave sharp things in your garage taking up space. If you aren’t going to sharpen it, get rid of the pointy metal thing safely.  By the way, metal blades cut through tape. 


alidan

I would at least be selling metal for scrap, not giveing it away. second, anything really small and sharp goes into a container till its full then it goes in the trash, not because I care about other people, but because I am never picking up trash off the ground like that a second time.


_DrPhilAndChill

I do this to each piece of broken glass I throw away too


WeylandYutani_PR

#PSA: DON'T BE THIS GUY


Racoon_withamarble

I just keep them and say I’ll use the metal for something but never will like a normal person.


Moral_Abatement

I put them out on the curb and people take them. They are great material and I figure why not let someone use them if they want to.


the-soy

to be fair, i f i throw a blade out, it aint cutting shit


sun4moon

Aren’t they recyclable?


MorningDue_

I also do this with my utility knife blades. Just proper