Do you have old junk lying around your house or yard that is just collecting dust or rust?

It may be worth more than you might think.

In the past, this might have been referred to as a junk yard. But with the numbers of people showing up Bryan Iron and Metal these days it is quickly become a pot of gold.

That's because scrap iron and steel prices have shot up 70 percent in the last year.

With the recession in 2009 more people are holding onto their old appliances and fewer appliances have been produced this past year.

The result is a soaring demand for certain scrap.

"We average about three times per week. A lot of people ask you to remove refrigerators, stoves, washer, dryers. It's pretty regular," said John Bryant, a Hearne resident.

Bryant was one of the dozens of people we saw turning somebody's trash into his treasure.

His trailer full of metals Wednesday was worth more than 300 bucks.

"I'm retired and I do this for my nest egg you know every $100 bill I get I put it away. You know if I wanna go out on my boat, if I wanna do something extra on the yard ok. This sort of supplements," Bryant said.

"Keeps some bread on the table," said Jimmy Pratt, a College Station resident.

Items of all shapes and sizes including little things like cans, to cars and refrigerators come to the scrap yard each day.

Will Anderson and his brother-in-law have made more than $10,000 in the past three months, getting rid of junk from their ranch in Calvert.

Wednesday they were selling a 40-year-old school bus.

"So far we've hauled off approximately 26 tons, about 52 thousand pounds," said Will Anderson of College Station.

"More and more people are doing this. Used to be a trash men type of job but now anybody, it touches everyone," Bryant said.

It may be trashy and messy, but for these folks it's a creative way to make money, when money can be hard to come by.

The school bus that Will Anderson and his brother-in-law sold, got them $640.