Holy crap, that had to have been quite the event to witness...
Does seem to be a widespread thing tho, scrap-anything disappearing... It's as if the concept of recycling has been taken too far...
I guess when the economy gets to the point it has, the fat all gets trimmed from every nook and cranny there is, and where people like us see the intrinsic value of a given scrap item, the economic model only sees the monetary value of the raw materials, and so direct recycling suffers as a result.
I too am one of those "repurpose anything into anything else" types, and miss the availability of seemingly trivial items to others.
The show must go on tho, so.... ?
Steve