the.com/scrapyard
Where metal goes to be reincarnated instead of resurrected.
means A storage ground for discarded metal and machinery that's collected for salvage or recycling rather than repair.
from A straightforward compound: 'scrap' (originally bits and leftover fragments, traced back to Old Norse 'skrap' meaning scraps or shreds) plus 'yard' (an enclosed outdoor area, from Old English 'geard'). The word settled into its modern industrial sense as metal recycling became big business, with scrap merchants needing a plain, functional name for the fenced lots where old cars and machinery piled up waiting to be melted down and reborn as something else.
- economics
- melted steel is cheaper than mined, so demand never dies
- hidden value
- your old car is worth more dead than running
- irony
- some of the world's priciest art is scrapyard shrapnel
- global trade
- scrap metal is one of america's largest exports by weight