MOUNT VERNON — Bag after bag after bag builds up into a small mountain of aluminum cans at a local scrap yard, and the manager there says it’s gotten to be too much for his hard working crew to handle.
Chuck Smith, manager of Planet Earth Recycling (formerly Mount Vernon Aluminum Exchange) at 800 N. Sandusky St., said he has seen a sharp increase in the number of people who are bringing in bags of aluminum cans, as well as scrap metal in the past, three months or so.
“People are just wanting to make extra money,” Smith said. “We’re getting quite a variety of people. It used to be more lower income people bringing them in.”
Rising food and gas prices are forcing people to cash in whatever valuable metal they can find and fit into a car or truck.
Becky Wallace and Lori Snider of Mount Vernon dropped off a few bags of aluminum cans at Planet Earth Recycling on Wednesday. Wallace said she is trying to collect a little extra money to pay for the gas for a vacation.
Smith said they try to ship a mixed load of cans and scrap, weighing about 10,000 pounds each day, and even reduced the price of aluminum to 70 cents a pound as a way to curtail the constant flow of people bringing in bags of cans but it hasn’t had much of an effect.
It isn’t just scrap metal that people are seeking to turn into quick cash. People are also turning to scrap gold. Mike McKee, the owner of Mount Vernon Coin & Collectibles, said he’s been having more and more people stopping in to trade scrap gold, such as old pieces of jewelry, into cash. He said the increase is probably due to the rising value of gold combined with rising food and gas prices.
“A lot of people didn’t know they could take damaged gold or good gold pieces and exchange them,” he said. “Gold and other precious metals and maybe even the not-so-precious metals are very liquid.”
Rising prices also appear to be prompting some to resort to breaking the law to make extra cash, according to police reports. There have been a number of reported thefts of catalytic converters — stolen for the platinum they contain — from vehicles in the city. Over the last few months, there have also been a number of reports of stolen copper and aluminum piping and aluminum from houses.
