August 09, 2008

High scrap prices clean Minnesota landscape

Minnesota Public Radio reported that high prices for scrap steel, up by more than 40%, have helped push a widespread cleanup of the Minnesota landscape this spring. As per report, farmers, business owners and other have dug out iron that's been ignored for years, maybe decades.

The report said that much of the scrap steel is coming from what might be called eyesores like car bodies and other automotive items parked behind garages and old farm machinery abandoned in tree groves.

Mr Walt Luneburg president of New Ulm Steel and Recycling said that at times he has had up to a half mile long line of vehicles waiting to unload. He said "Very busy to say the least, markets are exceptionally high and so there's a lot of material moving.”

Mr Luneburg said that as world demand for steel is increasing, pushing prices up, making it possible for people to make a profit on virtually anything they can find. He said that "You can tell people are actually digging deeper for it. I think a lot of this is actually coming out of the ravines and stuff like that. A lot of the groves have been cleaned up. But a lot of this scrap is actually coming out of places that people probably would have never went after it before."