Oi from Kansas City!

I run a unique recycling business out of my house. I pick and dumpster dive, collecting anything of a useful, or intrinsically valuable nature (such as rare metals), and then posting them on eBay or selling them in my community. Not all items are still meant for this world though (e.g. vintage handheld irons), and so, eventually, I tear apart the unwanted and recycle the constituent materials. The system is sort of self-correcting, when I debate over taking in more junk, I simply consider the junk's lowest, scrap value; instead of sweating over its highest, market value. And in that same way, I know that my inventory has integrity, as it is made of intrinsically valuable materials that have properties unique to them.

So, anything trashy interests me, composting, recycling, upcycling, forty-ouncers, vermiculture. There'll be a day when trash disposal will be an expense as ominous as electricity; I'd like to take responsibility now.

But junk is only where I've begun, I'm bootstrapping toward full self-sufficiency. What initially interested me was renewable energy, but that's a whole other post.

Holla

Welcome, sounds interesting.

Hello!

Lovley to meet you, and your work sounds amazing!

Welcome from me - bootstrapping, I love that term so much - anyway welcome

And a recycled welcome from me as well

noseblunter wrote:........ Not all items are still meant for this world though (e.g. vintage handheld irons), and so, eventually, I tear apart the unwanted and recycle the constituent materials......... Holla

Except that example is very strange. Just about nobody today would want those heat on the stove irons for use of course but they'd be much more valuable as "collectibles" than scrap. If not common in Missouri that people like to display 19th Century/early 20th Century ironmongrey as antiques (and so you find lots in the trash) hook up with somebody in another part of the country where there's a market for the stuff.

Make good door stops though!!

polgara wrote:Make good door stops though!!

My thought entirely!
Hello Noseblunter

Hi from me too...

You could also use them there irons for holding down wallpaper on a pasting table while you paste it...

Welcome


... and I'm sure those irons sell in antique shops over here.

In my family they would come under the category of "used to have one of those at the farm, great when we got an electric one" My dad grew up on a farm, which (you will have gathered) did not have electricity. Actually, I have a feeling there may be some of those irons around the house.

Hi there from France!
Those irons are still used by fine tailors!

Hello! Nice to meet you!