When we wrote about needing to get rid of some dead appliances and about the recycling center in Rincon, our friends had commented that we could simply leave the appliances out on the street and someone would pick them up.  We figured since we lived on a calle sin salida (cul-de-sac)  that the chances of someone randomly driving by to pick up our old fridge and washer were slim.  They might sit out for weeks we thought.

Well, as I left for the post office today I saw my neighbor had left a fridge out and low and behold, there was a scrapper already picking it up.  Their stuff sat for less than a day.

I stopped and asked him if he wanted some more stuff.  He dropped what he was working on and we came down the street to our property.  There was still an old fridge in the kitchen, which is up a flight of stairs.  I looked at him and said, “I don’t know how they got it up here”.  He replied, “But you will know how it got down!”  and we chucked it off the balcony and it landed with a thud.

The scrapper had his wife and daughter with him so Cassie brought out some guineos (bananas) and ice water for them while the man tore apart the appliances. In addition to the big fridge from the kitchen of the wood house, there was also an old fridge that had been used as a flower planter and a small stove with a rat’s nest inside.

He was nice and very hard working.  I talked to him a little and he said he does just about anything he can to earn money, and scrapping was one of those things.  He was fast and efficient.  I don’t know how much money in scrap 2 fridges and a mini gas stove are worth, but I can’t imagine much so it is a numbers game.  The more you can pick up in a day, the more you would earn.

Can we fit another one on top?

I keep saying that if you want something, you have to make it happen, and this is again further proof of that.  If you want to earn money, you find a way.  If you want to get rid of your appliances, you find a way.  This business seems rather symbiotic as well.  I had some appliances that were trash to me.  He finds them, and recycles the metal. Benefit to me, and him.

Yep!

So we got rid of 2 more defunct refrigerators and an old stove that was again, being used as a rat motel.  It turned out to be a productive morning in a whirlwind of tossing and tearing apart fridges with an occasional rat carcass here and there.

We hope that getting rid of the rat motels will also help to get rid of the rats!