Where are the Rag and Bone men gone

startrekker

I have noticed over the course of a few months that a van keeps coming to the back of our shops and collects all the metal from the skips.
Obviously collecting for the money value.
Those of us old enough remember Steptoe on his horse and cart, and I certainly remember the rag and bone man going around our streets in Belfast many years ago.
Do people still do this

In this day of greener issues wouldnt it be great to see them back on the streets, collecting our old clothes and scarp metal, at least we wouldnt be dumping some of this in our bins:eek: and of course, someone actually makes a living out of it....

li'l_p

They've joined Freecycle...!

Generally people nowadays use the likes of Freecycle to pass on goods that would otherwise go to landfill. Then there's also ebay and car boot sales, so Joe Public can profit from the sales of the goods, instead of the R n B man!

Penelope_Penguin

We still have a rag and bone man, with his horse

Penny. x

ryandj

I suspect these are rag and bone men - where I work is being gutted at the moment, so the skips fill up every week. Every week, some Irish guys in a van come and take out any good stuff from the skips. Everyone wins - our skips are not filled so quickly, the rag and bone men recycle it and make some money off it.

pigpen

We have had 3 different lots of Ernie's come down our street. all with horses.. so they must ALL be here.. One of them had a wheel fall off his cart just up the street so they were faffing for ages trying to get it back on.. I half expected a highwayman to come and hold them up lol..

There is a massively high price for most metals.. iron, steel and aluminium especially as China is buying it all up so they can sell it on for a lot.. so they are back on the streets in force!!

startrekker

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

We still have a rag and bone man, with his horse

Penny. x

Recycling and using green transport, even the horse s**t is good for the roses, he deserves a Knighthood:beer: Well done that man....

tru

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

We still have a rag and bone man, with his horse

Penny. x

So do we

greenpixey

pigpen wrote: »

There is a massively high price for most metals.. iron, steel and aluminium especially as China is buying it all up so they can sell it on for a lot.. so they are back on the streets in force!!

that would explain why someone would bother jumping over our 7ft garden wall to steal our 2 kitchen sinks (one old and one new )the other week. We were in the process of installing a new kitchen and only placed them there overnight.

startrekker

Interesting to see there are a few around, hmmmm, wonder if you could make a decent living from this......... or better still set up your own network of them.......making money for you

ryandj

startrekker wrote: »

Interesting to see there are a few around, hmmmm, wonder if you could make a decent living from this......... or better still set up your own network of them.......making money for you

I reckon you'd be in for a beating if you set up your own network of them! From the existing rag and bone men!

skintas_2

i had a van around here and they where looking for scrap i asked them how much to take away a old cooker i had, they took it for free, they could have charged me and i would have paid, they probably took it donw the scrap yard, dont care if they did saved me the hassle of getting rid of it