Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Burn gas and wear out the car just
to take some scrap to a recycling center, regardless of whether you get
enough money to make it worthwhile? I guess oil isn't a finite
resource?

That is why I said I save brass and copper in a box, at home. Eventually
you'll have enough to make a trip worthwhile. Since the recycle yard is on
the way to several other places I frequent, saving it up makes sense, no?
Re oil as a resource, when oil gets short, we'll have to use other energy
technologies, like solar, biofuels, electric, hydrogen, etc. When copper
runs short, we are out of luck, short of recycling.