Quebec recycler shows what happens to scrap appliances left on the curb

Sylvie D'Aoust drives a loop every week around western Quebec and loads her white pickup truck with other people's trash.

To her, it's all treasure.

She calls herself Recycle Warrior Grl — yes, that's girl without the 'i' — and collects broken appliances from the curb as a way to make quick cash and slow down what gets sent to the landfill.

"[The nickname] is like a play on Wonder Woman: black-brown hair, blue eyes," said D'Aoust, who has both. "[Recycling] is one of those things that I just felt passionate about and there's no hesitation whatsoever."

That's true even when it means getting dirty. Wearing gloves, coveralls, and a coat she recycled, D'Aoust will climb into dumpsters and rummage through garbage bins at local thrift stores that allow clients to take things that were unsold or broken.

"I think it's wonderful, it's great. It's less stuff in the garbage and going in the ground," said André Beauchamp of Trésors de Rupert Treasures, a thrift store where D'Aoust hoisted two stationary bicycles onto her truck.

Scrap metal collecting

It's been less than a year since D'Aoust has been collecting scrap metal.

"I've always been very passionate about recycling and the environment, and this is how I can make a much bigger impact, by offering this service," she said.

The idea came to her last summer while she was talking to a friend about recycling and discovered that Metro Scrap Metal (MSM) in Ottawa gives cash for scrap metal.

Her first order of business was cleaning up her own backyard — a one acre property in Chelsea that was storing an oil tank, dismantled eavestroughs and pieces from a renovation 10 years ago. She then cleared out her recently widowed neighbour's yard and took four truck loads of heavy metal to be recycled.

From there, D'Aoust turned it into a service where in Western Quebec clients can schedule for her to pick up their old appliances for a fee. Recently, her municipality also had changes to their waste collection services.

"So now there's an even greater need to be accessible all the time instead of like, you know, where you have to hold on to like one once per quarter. You can phone me up and I'll go pick it up," she said.

Selling items to reuse

Any time D'Aoust gets her hands on an appliance, she'll use a magnet to see if it's steel or aluminum. She'll then cut off the cords, which contain valuable copper, and sort the metals and cords by type on her truck's bed and seats.

There's a disclaimer on D'Aoust's booking site that says she has permission to sell or reuse any discarded items. And that could mean it ends up on her eBay store.

"Believe it or not, when you're looking for parts, eBay is where you go to find them," she said.

When clients discard electronics, she'll research if the cables, remotes, or parts are valuable. If they are, she'll upload them.

Scrap metal yard

Once D'Aoust's truckload is full, she takes her haul to either AIM Recyclage Gatineau or MSM in Ottawa's east end.

There, she'll throw anything made of steel into the scrap yard, which is then hoisted by a large grapple truck and into large trailers. From there, the contents are boxed up and sold to vendors to be recycled.

When customers drop off scrap metal, each material is priced per weight and itemized as either steel, e-waste, batteries, aluminum and copper.

In a video MSM owner Wehbe Wehbe posted on Facebook, he called D'Aoust his "favourite scrapper."

"She's saving the landfill and at the same time, she's bringing it here, and we recycle it, and really, we're mining above ground," he said.

D'Aoust received $120 on a recent haul to MSM, which was enough to cover her gas. She recently expanded her services to include property clean-up and set up a scrap metal drop-off at her home.