Taking stuff to the tip.

[guest27]

Hi All
Was looking on ebay earlier and saw a RIckman frame that would probably suit my Maico lump - but I cannot have it cos of location and money - but it got me thinking.

Can I ask a question of you all by way of research...

My Maico lump came from the domestic rubbish tip and recycling facility at Wollerstone near Northampton - from on known as the tip.  This tip, like those in Milton Keynes, High Wycombe, Beaconsfield and Amersham that I know of - sell on to the public anything that may be useful - for pennies.  I have bought a load of demijohns at 15p each, and the Maico lump came along with a 21" front wheel from a small suzuki, and a derailure (spelling) for the princely sum of £5.  I also got a Triumph OiF frame for £2 etc.  At the Wolverton one in MK they even have a tool kit - salvaged from stuff thrown out - that you can use to strip off any parts you want.  So Dyson brush bars are £1 etc.

Now here in Port Talbot - and also in Swansea - they have a policy still that NOTHING can be taken away from the tip - saw a man arguing not long back to be allowed to take a VW bug engine that had been dumped - no it had to go in the mixed metal scrap bin...

Where are you in the UK - world - and do they run a purchace scheme to allow you to take other peoples rubbish if you can make use of it from yor local tip.  The local people here (council) seem to think that either no-one anywhere does this or it is unique to the "Tory" South East of England.

So how does it work where you are?

R

[Steve H]

In Abergavenny The policy changed when the company leasing the site changed hands. It used to be fairly open now they have a strict policy of not taking away and several cameras which dissuade you from chucking stuff in the back of the car when they arent watching.

[trophydave]

Here in Notts they will sell you stuff from the tip.I know of people who are always up there scavenging for stuff.I believe it has something to do with trying to make these places as profitable as possible,the workers there go through everything that you take to see if there is anything to sell.

[pigafetta]

Its a no scavenging rule here in Prestatyn. But, when you go to dump your stuff the Tippy bloke watches you like a hawk and anything remotely useful gets stuck in a pile next to his shed and disappears at the end of the day in the back of his van. When we were kids we used to go down to a big landfill near Rhyl and scrounge bike bits but those days are long gone.

Is it illegal to nick stuff out of skips? I've been known to do it but I always feel a bit wierd about it.

Dave B

[MrFluffy]

Here in my region of france, the skip place itself used to be ok to take stuff out of, and the workers there used to do it too as they owned a secondhand shop, but kept the place clean, locked up at night etc. Then the council sacked them for it, and replaced them with some very spanish gypsy looking types who zealously guard every piece and item, but leave the gates wide open at night to save the rest of the theiving scum parasite gypsy population having to climb the fence (or rather to lower their kids the other side of the fence and get them to pass eveyrthing over). I only take my really horrid rubbish there now, especially plastic cling film coated with oil, or my favourite, the crust off my septic tank

Next dept over has a much more enlightened dechetterie, they have a actual business attached to the tip called "Maximum" with signs made out of junk etc best scrapheap challenge style, and they recycle everything they possibly can. They stash all the stuff in a yard area, and you can wander round and pick up what you want. I paid 40e for two mobylette mopeds the last time I was there for one of mate's kids to practice in his field with, and the time before I scored a 3 phase cinncinati sensitive drill with rise and fall head and taper shank quill. Once I seen a whole renault master that someone had drove up and left, and I was converting mine from uk to french spec, so I had the headlights, the column the lot out of it, in fact they stripped out the bits I asked for and I collected them a week later!  You can also commision them to make stuff, they were making steel roof trusses out of some tube for someone one occasion I was there.
Its also common for people to arrive with complete cars, and theyll cut them up with a oxy torch and split out the steel/plastics etc into various recycling bins.
My mrs says if I go to maximum, Im bound to return with more stuff than I went to dispose of. Its true, I love taking the rubish there, and the blokes there love me bringing a van full of odds and ends for them to sift through. I think its a win win situation, the amount of crap buried in a big hole is reduced, they get some money back, and I dont begrudge paying them for the pick of the yard...

[TOAD]

Down in the "conservative" South East at our Margate tip the guys working there watch you all the time.There are sings everwhere saying everything on the premises is the property of the local authority.(does that include our vehicles I wonder).
If you do see something you could use you have to ask the owner to keep it in their vehicle and meet them outside the gates.

[guest27]

Seem to remember that there was a case a few years ago about someone "stealing" from a skip outside a house - the court found that when something is put in a skip it is thrown away and thus the "owner" gives up their rights to it - ie if something goes wrong they are liable, but if you want it it is not stealing.

Heated a student house for a couple of yeas on scrap wood from skips, oh and more than once had a nice chippy supper from all the returnable bottles - what ever happened to them?

R

[themoudie]

Aye Rog,

Still heating my house and workshop on scrap wood mixed with arboricultural prunings and remains of standing sale wood piles! Also know of a woman who built a suite of horticultural outbuildings with wood from a private dump/skip lorry enterprise.

As for the bottles, still going strong up here at 20p a shot and good for a nice bit of fish and mushy peas.

Council run site is fine, providing you get the stuff before it goes in the skips. Politeness and discretion with the gentlemen overseeing the operation are paramount and don't be greedy though it may pain the heart! There are also acquaintances which need to be respected, as they may be 'family'!

Private skip sites are more ameanable to patient scouring, again courtesy and discretion can go a long way.

Happy mooching, Bill

[Andy M]

Leeds was almost communist for so long that old habits die hard, which means the "state" owns everything they can lay their hands on. You go into the tip, the red guards order you about so that everything goes where it's supposed to and the second it leaves the boot of your "imperialist personal transport device (shortly to be banned)" it belongs to them. They probably sell it all to China to be melted down and made into those blue bicycles, which they will then sell back to us to replace all the vehicles they are about to ban from the city.

Anyone dumping engines/frames etc. is pretty nuts if you ask me. Here abouts scrap agents are now advertising on the radio for members of the public and tradesman to bring in their old stuff. The price of copper in parcticular is off the scale. Place near us has a car recycling facility with a 6 lift workshop where they strip out everything with a recyling mark, remove saleable components (like spark plugs which are cleaned, sorted and shipped east) and sort the metals. It's all set for the EU end of life directive, but rather than the expected you pay them and don't get fined system, the price of scrap makes it possible for them to pay you if you get it there under your own power. The guy running the place drives a brand new Aston Martin, which he admitts isn't a great advertisement for a "green" business, but what the heck, good luck to the bloke. He also said a problem they hadn't forseen was muppets bringing the vehicles in with full tanks of fuel! No Thumper Club members there then.

This will be why our glorious leaders won't let you recycle three scrap engines into working one.

Andy

[beeman]

Daventry tip sell everything, but it is in Northamptonshire. Rotherham is supposed to be "non negotiable it belongs to us" but if you talk nto the lads operating it I've managed to obtain the odd little thing  with no problems.
At present iIm looking for a fuel tank, possibly off a lawn mower, to run a small bsa standing engine. So they are used to seeing me each week.
They used to be keen to stop you using trailers but now they don't seem to bother, its a strange world of rules and regulations, when it suits them.

[bullet350]

 i think the days of motorbikes in skips are long gone (until the EU gets its way) but pushbikes are often thrown out.
there is a certain satisfaction in making good use of cycles that were intended for the landfill. At the rate they get stolen in london it makes sense to get a 'hack' for general duties.

i've always though that each council should have a breakers yard. instead of people dumping old cars on the road they could dump them in a council pound, and people could take what they want. any profits could be put back in to the council purse. it would be impossible not to make a profit as well as reducing the cost of removing and disposing of dumped cars.
its also environmentally friendly.
its far more ecologically sound to keep old vehicles going than to keep buying new ones that do 2 more mpg.

its this kind of simple and logical thinking that keeps me out of government.

350bullet

[steveD]

As I often get a skip to remove the debris from kitchens and bathrooms I usually put a sign on the side which reads........... " If you see anything which may be of use please feel free to remove"
I put my mobile number and it is usually quite obvious which house I am working at. I also have the mobile number of a local scrap chappie who will come and take away ovens,dishwashers and the liike.
A skip will cost me @ £120 and the last thing I want to do is to fill it with large bulky items when I can get the public to remove it for free.
...and it works, at a job where I would have needed two skips, a couple drove past, saw the sign, knocked on the door and asked if it was true!, they nearly emptied the skip as I was doing a refurb on a kitchen and ALL of the appliances still worked!
I have rarely done a bathroom where the complete suite was US, Ok might not be to everyones taste but some people have more money than sense and who am I to complain as it keeps me in a job!


SteveD (off to Wetton this weekend)

[guest7]

The trouble is, as you have said, virtually no bathroom suites get changed because they are knackered. This means that I would need a storage unit just for left over sinks, baths and the like.

I have thought of trying to store them all somehwere and punting them out to landlords and the like for beer money, but as you have probably guessed it, the time doesn't justify the return so they get skipped.

GC