Currently watching: Getting Rich in the Recession, Channel 4, Thursday 28 November 2013, 9pm. 47:16
“With metal prices soaring, this documentary meets the diverse range of people raking it in in the scrap industry, from ex-criminals to former music moguls and a mum-of-three.”
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/getting-rich-in-the-recession/4od
“The UK is still feeling the effects of recession. Jobs are being axed, money is tight and most of us are broke. But look a little closer and you’ll see that the streets of Britain are paved with gold. You just need to know where to look. With unprecedented access to a scrap yard in Sydenham, South London, this documentary lifts the lid on the secret world of the scrap metal industry. […]Due to the soaring cost of metal, scrap is a £10 billion a year industry. Over a million tonnes of electrical waste are thrown away each year. More than half of it still works. Old sinks, pots, pans, wrecked TVs, unwanted cars, washing machines, window frames, chairs and lamps are thrown away without a moment’s thought. And there to collect it, just around the corner, are the scrappers. Full of incidents, insight, humour and larger-than-life personalities, the film reveals an extraordinary group of people who, through hard graft and a keen eye for an opportunity, are making money from nothing on the streets of South London.”
The somewhat tongue-in-cheek and attention grabbing title gets straight to the point: This programme is all about people trying to make money in one of the hardest economically eras many have ever seen in their lives. This episode focusses on the scrap trade. The scrapyard owner with a healthy annual turnover talks about the scrap industry being a bit like the stock exchange – knowing when to buy and sell to make the most profit. The current premium on scrap metal is being driven by booming building industries in China and India. The main message of the programme is that although the scrap industry might have a rough and dirty reputation due to the physical labour involved, the people it is attracting are ordinary folk from various backgrounds.
The camera follows a few willing subjects around London as they collect scrap and also look at the inner workings of a scrapyard. One scrapper talks about his utter disbelief how wasteful we are as a nation and seems to less waste despite making his living from others’ careless wasting. We have too much stuff, he says, and would value things more if we had less stuff – a thought shared by many an environmentalist and developmental psychologist.
The only female scrapper talks about the emotional side to her job. After a recent messy divorce she can no longer bare spending evenings at home and escapes into her world of driving around scavenging for things to sell and also keep. She shows us around her daughters bedroom that she proudly tells us is mostly found and recycled items although she is keen to point out she is not a hoarder – she only keeps stuff she has a specific use for. In the hierarchy of rubbish, hoarder is below that of scavenging and scrapper it seems.
The racism people encounter is rife. The programme concludes by emphasising that this trade is attracting lots of people from all walks of life trying to make a living. It doesn’t require qualifications, relevant experience or even a clean criminal record and, although there are a few people giving scrappers a bad name by illegal activity such as not asking permission to take scrap metal even if it’s in a skip or stealing railway cable, most scrappers are honest and hard working. The main problem the scrappers are facing in these hard times is the over-saturation of other traders seeking the same scrap metal, so this advert for making a quick few quid seems to be doing the ‘stars’ of the show no favours at all. However, it may raise awareness that what we are thoughtlessly throwing away is actually of value and help people to reconsider what they discard as rubbish.
