Published: July 14, 2008 01:02 pm            

Cash for junk — 07/15/08

Soaring prices for scrap metal is helping clean up the region

For generations, the natural beauty of this region has been marred by junk: Old cars and trucks, rusting refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances — and just about anything else deemed no longer useful.

Now those old vehicles, stoves and other piles of junk are disappearing from the landscape of eastern Kentucky.

Pulaski County is “50 percent cleaner” in recent months, said Gerald Hines, the county’s solid waste coordinator. And it’s been accomplished without any new anti-litter campaigns and special drives to rid the region of eyesores.

In fact, it is not even a desire to rid the region of eyesores and improve the environment that is the primary motivating factor in the cleaning up of eastern Kentucky. Instead, it is the opportunity to make money by selling that which was once considered of little value.

The high price being paid for scrap metal has suddenly given that old lawn mower parked out back or that rusting washing machine on the front porch new value. In 2003, steel and iron scrap was $100 a ton compared to $520 per ton in May, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling.

Daniel Cordle, who co-owns three Mr. Metal scrap yards in eastern Kentucky, pays sellers $180 per ton of steel, compared to about $20 a ton five years ago. That makes a discarded pickup truck worth about $300.

The demand stems mainly from developing nations such as China and India. Last year, the U.S. exported $21.7 billion in scrap metal.

Local scrap dealers say they have seen the number of people bringing in scrap more than double.

Of course, there is a negative aspect to all this. The theft of copper from construction sites and from utility companies like Kentucky Power have become a major problem and added to the cost of doing business. A number of would-be thieves also have been killed while attempting to remove copper from utility poles. Numerous catalytic converters have been stolen from parked cars — a crime unheard of just a few years ago.

But the cleaning up of eastern Kentucky is a positive aspect of the rising prices being paid for scrap metal. Every old vehicle and appliance that is removed from a hillside or creek and sold for scrap helps erase what has been a negative for this region for far too long.

        

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