A month's food for half an hour's work

I took all the scrap metals I collected during the year to a local dealer and earned £26. I took that money straight to a supermarket and stocked up with a month's worth of food to supplement what I grew in the garden this year.

With copper at over £3000 per tonne, brass at £2200, aluminium at £500 and motors/transformers at £300 there is money to be made from even a modest amount of scrap.

Make sure you know where the metal came from and that you obtained it legally. The dealer will check for smart water on lead, to make sure you didn't whip it off the local church roof, and you will have to show an ID.

This was not something that I set out to get rich from doing. More a bi-product of the electronics I have been collecting for various projects I have been working on. However, the ease at which I collected the metals means that I shall consider collecting a much larger amount next year.

So, when you next throw something out, take a little time to consider what it is made from. You could be throwing money out the window!

Not for nothing are rag and bone men back on our streets and a lot of people blatantly advertise on Freecycle for scrap metal.