It's the nature of the business. They buy scrap metal by the pound and sell it by the pound and they're not set up to sell a couple pounds here and there. In order to do what we would like (and I would like it, too) they would have to "manage" it. Every large corporation (or government entity) is a bureaucracy and every change to the business/service model requires that the bureaucracy analyze it and approve it. Then, a sub-bureaucracy has to be created to manage the change. They "need" a manager of scrap bicycle reassignment and every manager of such a high level activity needs about five assistant managers to manage the one minimum wage guy who actually sells the bicycle to someone who can use it either for parts or rehabilitation. By the time they're done, it would cost them, probably, $10.00 for every $1.00 they would take in. To break even, they would probably have to resell a crap Walmart bicycle for more than Walmart sold it for in the first place.

In actuality, I've seen scrapyards that do this sort of thing with steel. You go over there and tell them that you want a 4" by 4" steel tube with .125 (or close) wall thickness (for a fence repair). They give you a piece of paper and you go out to the yard and talk to the guy with the cutoff saw who will cut it to length and load it on your truck. They're set up to do it and know what to charge in order to make money. But, they are dealing with a commodity and they can calculate the value added by their custom scrap sales and they are staffed for it. They don't, for example, allow you to go out to where the washing machines are and try to salvage a motor for a specific model.

Auto scrap yards are a different deal, too.