Down on the Junkyard

Been doing lots of brake replacements in the last 6 months (including the back brakes on my Freestyle), leaving me a bunch of rotors in the garage. I took them over to the local recycling plant, my first trip to a little slice of industry that's been in my town for 10+ years.

On the way in, there was some of the equipment used in the operation that doubled as set pieces for the Matrix trilogy.  Never saw one of these close-up, I never fully appreciated the mechanical complexity of this machinery.

Weigh In

Rotors went on a scale in the building, I didn't have enough to qualify for the big scale outside.  Scrap dealers seem very concerned about collecting identifying information, my license was required at weigh-in and I signed something to the effect the scrap being presented was, in fact, mine.  I had eight rotors: two from the Freestyle, four from a VW bug, two from a Jetta and the last two from our minivan.  Lots of brake work this year.  I must say, the brakes on the Freestyle were the easiest to service, with the minivan being the next, the Bug gave me the most grief and frustration.

The output of the weigh-in process is a receipt. My eight rotors became 103 lbs of TMNT-esque "shredder feed" (if not pizza, I guess scrap metal would be next reasonable foodstuff).  I then took the receipt to the receptionist to get a card for the ATM.  Lots more paper work than I expected for such a simple transaction. My spare rotors earned me $4.60, rounded down to the nearest quarter.

It's all about the Washingtons

The ATM dispenses only dollars, so I got my four bits from the receptionist and after inserting my ATM card, the machine produced four dollars. No PIN necessary, just inserted the card and the machine produced four not-so-crisp bills. From what I could tell, the ATM was a security system to keep the cash box from being skimmed or stolen.  Although the money wasn't
much, it was a nice boss feeling to have the ATM just produce cash without the formality of having to enter any identifying information.  This must be how kids conceptualize an ATM before the hear their parents bickering about money.