This is a video of a young man, CodyDon Reeder, who has science-ish videos on youtube. He surmised that there was a measurable amount of platinum and palladium debris in the detritus that piles up on the breakdown lane of highways, so he went out with a broom and bucket one night, and got himself some “paydirt.” He then “qualifies” it, and smelts it down, recovering a small amount of precious metals.
He wasn’t particularly concerned about the financial viability of this, but I wonder if a city sanitation crew could make it pay, especially seeing as the cost of acquiring the paydirt is a “sunk cost” and can be disregarded.
@BillRussell 's photo above indeed is what the metal strips I find look like. With nothing to judge them against for size, they appear larger in the photo than they actually are. I shall give BR the quality check mark for solving this thread.
I wish they’d just go over the roads with a big magnet every once in a while. Then bicycles will only get flat tires from shards of glass and brass nails.
I have been finding things way back when I was in Elementary School in the late 70’s and it seems hard for me to believe they are from streetsweepers because I would even find these things on gravel roads, and places when and where it seemed implausable a street sweeper had been… I also don’t know how long streetsweepers were available in my hometown of Hagerstown, MD, but seems I had been finding these long before we had streetsweepers here… I could be wrong though. Just remember I even asked my Dad back then if he knew what they were but he would just say, “throw it down, its just a piece of junk” but I would always find another somewhere and hide it away to use as a tool or to get stuck change out of a soda machine. I knew they couldn’t be dipsticks cause they weren’t wide, long enough, or thick enough with no markings for the fill lines. Anyway… Just figured I would put in my 2 cents worth.
I’m not going to read this again but I’ve never found much on the road besides an implement gear and a shovel. One morning there was a dumpster in the road that had unhooked but I didn’t pick that up. The rocking chair my buddy hit was beyond redemption but luckily grandma was not in it.
Around here though the sweepers seem to come out before the leaves are down. They tell us it’s to prevent the leaves plugging the storm drains. But no rain anyway so guess it doesn’t matter. Still I think they will need to make a second pass. We’re supposed to keep the leave out of the street anyway for the bikers but I feel no obligation to continue to clean up what Mother Nature drops in the street.
I’ve never found leaves in the street something that impedes my bicycling. Cleaning away the dropped leaves for improved bicycling seems a pretty low priority imo.
Heh heh. Yeah usually bike riders don’t ride close to the curb but that is what the city engineer said in his article. I have had discussions with the guy before though and reminded me of a bag of hammers.
