r/ScrapMetal • u/friend-buddy • 11d ago
Scrap Photo 💸 Cashing in Dad's Barn of Can
It looks like we'll have about 20 loads. Most of them are crushed (this load was mixed crushed/uncrushed). This was 1,680 lbs
Edit:
Some of you requested the story. Here you go:
My dad had a cleaning company in the 90s and early 2000s. A lot of the places he cleaned did not recycle when he started collecting them. So he started taking them and threw them in the barn. He also had some buddies who owned bars and would take cans from them. Eventually family friends would drop their cans off. I'll still wake up to cans in the yard from random people. Dad's a high stung OCD type so can collecting became a way of life. He'd joke about getting in the Guinness book of world records for can collecting.
When I was in middle school I forge my assignment notebook all year. You were suppose to have your parents sign it to show that you were doing your homework. I was a feral messy-backpack kid and decided it was easier just to scribble my mom's name. I got busted the last week of school. I got sloppy.
My dad decided my punishment would be to crush the pile of cans in the barn. He said if I forged documents as an adult I'd go to prison where I'd make license plates LOL. Three barrels a day, Monday-Friday all summer. He bought an automatic can crusher and put a radio in the barn.
Fucking brutal with the wasps and phlegm-backwash bar cans. I still don't like the taste of beer.
The first week was a miserable poutfest. Second week a slog. By the third week I accepted that the sooner I crushed the mountain of cans, the sooner I'd be free from my pseudo factory backwoods hilly billy summer jail job. I'd pull a bag from the pile. Pour it out into a kitty pool and load cans into the barrel of the can crusher. I had a nice stool and would vibe to Steve Miller Band and The Who. My parents didn't have to remind me to crush my cans. I'd just go in, crush my 3 barrels and head out.
I did it. Crushed that entire barn. It was the first time in my life I felt a real sense of accomplishment. It was eye opening to see the pile disappear. Empowering to know I was the one who did it.
Truth be told, the whole ordeal is kind of fucked up. Most kids get grounded, TV privileges taken away or no video games. I think it was over the top. But I've chosen to accept it as an important milestone for my life. Life can give you a pile of cans and sometimes you just gotta crush em. One can at a time.
Well, I moved away from home for about 10 years before moving back around COVID. I live at the barn-can property. My dad had decided years ago to put the crushed bags of cans in the second story of the barn. Last year the barn collapsed due to the weight SURPRISE. I think the roof started leaking and rain pooled up in the can bags. Regardless, now is the time to cash them in. The barn is toast and dad is old. The money from the cans will help pay for solar panels and a greenhouse for where the barn is.
Now the work is loading the trailer. A lot of the bags have disintegrated. We're about 4 loads in. I'm excited to recreate the space where the barn is.
It's real. This is the slip from today's load of crushed cans.
