Not that it’s a cast iron level of this issue, but I knew a guy who paid for college (this woud have been about 10 years ago now) by purchasing scavenged and derelict boats, then chopping\melting the lead ballast out of them to resell as raw metal. Never underestimate the value of scrap metal or people’s willingness to gather it up for money.
Not necessarily. People still scavenge lead (often from car batteries) and cast their own fishing weights and bullets.
Not that it’s a cast iron level of this issue, but I knew a guy who paid for college (this woud have been about 10 years ago now) by purchasing scavenged and derelict boats, then chopping\melting the lead ballast out of them to resell as raw metal. Never underestimate the value of scrap metal or people’s willingness to gather it up for money.
There is a multi billion dollar industry revolving around scrap metals.