Thursday, October 13, 2005

Rubbish is Money

But not the perishable type. Not unless you use them as compost and save on fertilizer money.

Those scavengers that come and dig in your rubbish bin do it for a reason. There's money in rubbish. Aluminium cans, scrap metal, old cardboards can translate into $$ at the scrap dealer's.

My 13-year old microwave oven recently went kaput for the third or fourth time since I've had it. As I already have a Europa convection oven, I decided not to repair the poor sod. Instead I bought a small basic unit for reheating purposes. My sister told me of a besi buruk (scrap metal) dealer near her shop. I lugged the old oven over there and got a measly RM15.70 for the oven which I paid RM1,700 for. Better than nothing. It's good for two MacDonald value meals.

I don't know if the 55 sen per kg I got for the oven was a fair deal as I had no basis for comparison. If you have any old pots and pans, don't throw them out. Bring them to the besi buruk vendor and earn some money for your rubbish. In these days of rising commodity prices, every bit of money comes in handy.

Here's the quotation I got from the Sg. Rasa dealer :

RM/per kg
Copper - 11.50
Aluminium - 4.50
Brass - 7.00
Steel - 4.10
Iron (grade 1) - 0.80
Iron (grade 3) - 7.00
Light scrap - 0.55

Now you know why those thiefing vandals steal our manhole covers, drain covers and whatever can be turned in for good cash.

18 comments:

Kak Teh said...

Lydia, last year I paid almost £300 to hire a skip and PAY someone to clear my garden which was and still is full of rubbish. Now we have got an old sofa, several old bikes, and all sorts of things - which the normal rubbish collector will not take. we also have to dispose of our old fridge and freezer separately ...all these rubbish but they cost us money.

Queen Of The House said...

Hmmmm, really, no wonder they curi everything! All it takes is a bit of work to get what you want, then lug it to the besi buruk man. Recycling center pays like that or not?

Bergen said...

'The world is a scrapmetal.' One fine day I'm going to write that poem after I'm done reading Thomas Hardy and WBB Yeats, not that I understand any of these. BTW what kinda old bikes do have in your garden, Kak Teh. I rebuild old bikes as a hobby.

Good to read this from you Lydia. Keep writing, teacher. Have a nice day, ma'am.

Kak Teh said...

Gergen, just basikal buruk , not the Harley Davidson kind!

Kak Teh said...

OOps...Bergen! Typing in the dark!

Lydia Teh said...

KT, Old bikes can be dismantled for the junkyard. Don't they have those over there?
Queen, Old newspapers pay oso not too bad. I sold two mths' worth for about RM5.
Adiejin, Terrible isn't it. Isn't the first time, right. Remember reading something like this sometime ago.
Bergen, Thanks. Actually I'm also still learning :) Rebuild old bikes? Wah, you must have a bike museum.

Picatho (百可度) said...

Ha Ha! U're back to basic.
Don't throw away your used scripts, recycle.
I've specially penned "going nowhere" for u.

Picatho (百可度) said...

Hi Lydia,

Hey! Money is rubbish vice versa. $1 coins will become rubbish. During Chinese 7th month festival, I found $500m monies throwing here & there as rubbish. Recently a woman in UK, was distributing a rubbish of 2,000p to public a month. Few years ago, Argentineans suddenly found their old notes all became rubbish.

dith said...

This reminds me about the incident when my present house was almost completed. We were about to move in when we found out, theives had pulled all the nicely laid- in- the- walls electric wirings, through and through! The electrician said "kalau bagi tahu sama saya, says boleh bagi itu pencuri duit, tak payah susah tarik ini wayar, aiyah!"
Later, after 2 mths moving in, my hubby's RM1,500 bicycle's tyre plus brake plate was ripped of! Must have got a good bargain from the besi buruk man!

Bergen said...

Your hubby is a serious mountain biker? Or the the thief was a serious mountain biker because scrap metal dealer don't know any better the difference between a disc brake plate, and a piece of metal weighing about 300 - 500 gm.

Bergen said...

Yes, I rebuild old bicycles for fun and give it away to children for free. It's the skill I hope to hone just in case it comes in handly later on should I ever have the opportunity to do volunteer work.

Lydia Teh said...

p3p4, RM1 coins will become collector's item, hehe.
Dr, I had the same experience with my house. During renovation, thieves stripped it of the aluminium door frame and carted away all the fans. Geramnya.
Bergen, that is so nice of you.

Queen Of The House said...

I guess that's why people put the grills first before proceeding with the wiring, lighting & all. An uncle of mine had all the light fixtures stolen. Oh, he had the grill installed too, but the culprits went in through the roof!!! At a sis-in-law's during renovations, they stole the drill, aluminium stepladder & other stuff.

Oh, back to the orig topic, I sold paper lama & got RM18 (a year's supply, maybe?)

Picatho (百可度) said...

This morning, I met Eh Poh Nim at the Star universe, I asked her that my BA(hon) degree from Bolton U is now no more recognized by JPA, could I call it "bog cum laude?

Somemore my FPNA, the highest award from National Inst. of Accountants, AU, which can be easily earned me a PR entry, also no recognized here, could I call it "summa bog cum laude"?

U know what? She muted for a moment, aligned her salong into correlation, then replied: "well, actually u can provided u use nom de plume."

Lydia Teh said...

Queen, one year's supply of old papers? You need a room to store them all.
p3p4, You making Eh Poh Nim's head pusinglah. She's spun off into the galaxy oredy, now I can't contact her.

Anonymous said...

harlo aunty
i didnt realy
read the whole thing but i think it is good.......:)......;) from:tan ern shern

Lydia Teh said...

Ern Shern, thanks. I deleted the other comment where you wrote your email. Better to be safe. You also don't want spam to flood your email, do you? If you don't know what is spam, ask me when you see me. It's got nothing to do with water or pumps.

Anonymous said...

Could you kindly leave address or contact details of where I can sell off my besi buruk? I need to contact them.

Thank you.