Tag: scrap

#365daysofbiking – Interregnum

February 5th – In that odd, vague and lifeless interregnum between ‘rather ill’ and ‘quite a bit better’ I found myself bumbling around the canals of Brownhills on what was not an altogether bad day.

Here at Middleton Bridge – overlooking open farmland not a ringtoss from where the Staffordshire Hoard found a local metal detectorist – it’s hard not to look at this view and reflect.

On the left was a chemical works in the late Victorian period, that made tar and other such products; latterly an alloy smelter that seemed to process war scrap. Local kids were attracted to the yard full of warplane fuselages and engines for scrap, and for fun, but down in the valley, real metal riches lay just below the surface in a ploughed field.

This stretch of canal is still called ‘The Chemical’ by older locals.

It looks a damn site better now the scrapyard has gone, mind…

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#365daysofbiking Repellent magnetism:

September 22nd – There’s a current fad happening on local canals at the moment that’s really bloody irritating.

Magnet fishing.

Well, perhaps not the activity itself, but the end result. Chancers get hold of very strong magnets on the likes of eBay and then tie them to a line and dredge them along the canals to see what metal they pull out.

I guess they’re looking for interesting stuff, but nobody’s going to pull out gold coins, only ferrous stuff, obviously although I’m not sure the anglers have twigged that yet.

The problem comes when they pull out worthless junk: They just leave it on the towpath for some other poor sod to deal with, where it blocks access and really makes the canals look messy.

To my mind, these people are, at the very least, littering and should be prosecuted if caught.

Thankfully, selfless and dedicated volunteers in collection boats – here seen passing through Tipton – are working to clear up the mess left by these irresponsible, greedy scavengers.

July 4th – Also out, but altogether busier was this juvenile heron. A lovely bird, clearly maturing and in very good condition, although still small for an adult.

This is a healthy, native heron fishing in a waterlily-swathed canal in the shadow of a huge scrapyard in the heart of the industrial Black Country.

Tell me this place isn’t wonderful and surprising. I dare you.

January 17th – Recently had a new fridge or freezer? Left the old one out for the scrap man to collect? Well done, this is where the bits they couldn’t weigh in ended up.

This is the ditch running beside Green Lane at Bullings Heath, Walsall Wood.

If you leave stuff out for tatters and scrap men, you aren’t recycling, and it’s not out of sight, out of mind. We all have to pay to get this stuff cleaned up. The rubbish fairy doesn’t exist.

Leaving stuff out in the hope it’ll disappear as if by magic renders you no better than a flytipper, which is, incidentally, the way it’s considered in law.

June 8th – Green Lane, Shelfied; fly tipping in a field gateway, a spot sadly prone to this activity.

Yet again, fridges; people leave old appliances outside from scrap collectors, who strip the valuable metal and then dump the rest in lanes and quiet spots like this.

Please stop leaving stuff for these people – it may be out of sight, out of mind, but you’re complicit in flytipping and causing this problem.

June 4th – A spin around Brownhills in the rain. I had errands to run, and I took a shortcut under the loading bay of the old Tesco at Ravens Court. There, no doubt pushed off the back of a truck under the cover of the fences and scrub, the carcasses of two scrap fridges.

The plague continues. The old appliances have been stripped of any metal with commercial value, and that will be kept by the tatters and weighed in for cash. The remnants are just flytipped anywhere they can offload them.

There is no defence of this; it’s what happens when recycling legislation is thoughtlessly altered, but the people doing this are scum. They don’t care for anything but the cash, and everyone who leaves old appliances out for the scrap men to collect is as guilty as those who dump the remains.

Stop leaving stuff for tatters and get your waste disposed of properly, because we all up up paying if you don’t.

December 11th – The waste fridge problem continues. Spotted in Shelfield this morning on the way to work, this could have been waiting for a bulky waste collection by the council, or more likely, left out for tatters (scrap men) by a householder. With scrapyards now unable to take fridges and freezers due to them being classed as hazardous waste, the tatters have just stripped the valuable electrical parts – the motor, condenser and wiring – and left the rest. Such discarded whitegoods are flytipped in lay-bys, country lanes and industrial estates. 

If this was left for an arranged bulky collation, great. If not, it could stay where it is for weeks. This is a reflection of what happens if waste laws are tinkered with without consideration.

Please, please, please – dispose of this stuff properly. Travelling tatters will not. By leaving stuff out for them, you’re exacerbating illegal dumping and metal theft.

September 16th – The lanes and key-bys of the area (and probably the country) are currently suffering a rash of dumping. The rules have changed, and scrap yards will no longer accept fridges and freezers, so tatters are stripping the metal from them and dumping the remnants anywhere they can.

This discarded shell of a fridge is in Green Lane, Walsall Wood.

I still see discarded appliances left outside houses for the scrap men to take. Don’t do it, because this is where the shit ends up – as far as I’m concerned, anyone who leaves waste out like that is condoning flytipping and should be prosecuted as a flytipper.

June 13th – I took a diversion from my usual route to Darlaston and hopped on the canal, which was lovely, despite the wet weather. As I passed by the old mill at Pleck, I noticed that an old bike was still taunting me from the open side of the goods hoist. There used to be two in there, but one has disappeared. It still looks like an old steed – note the sprung saddle – but it seems to be fitted with triple derailleur gears. It might be a bit of a mongrel, as although the wheels look chunky, the frame looks quite dainty. Whatever it is, it’s such a shame to see it trapped there in the tower, like some velocipedian Rapunzel.

August 8th – This annoys the hell out of me. Well-to-do house in Little Aston Lane, Little Aston. One presumes that the owners have left two old video recorders on the pavement for the tatters and scrap men to collect. Lots of people do this – I often see washing machines, fridges and household items left out in this way. After all, they take your rubbish, and make a few bob… What could possibly be wrong with that?

Most scrapyards pay less for contaminated metal loads – those containing plastic and other material – or will not accept them at all. Thus, the plastic parts of these devices will be smashed off. The metal will indeed end up in some tat yard, but the plastic? Look in lay-bys, wastelands and other spots for the flytipped remains of consumer whitegoods and junk like this. 

By leaving stuff out, people are contributing to the flytipping and metal theft plague we’re currently enduring. Tatters are competing for junk to the extent that I’ve seen them pulling metalwork out of the canal, so will take anything. Leaving stuff for them just encourages more of their nuisance. It’s also illegal to give waste to a non-licensed carrier – if this stuff is traced back, you can be prosecuted as well as the carrier.

All because the owner couldn’t be arsed to use the local refuse facility.