For the right price, anyone will recycle.

That includes old pops and grandpops, who haven't changed the way they've been doing things since time was invented and who think recycling is for those wacky hippie folk who drink tofu juice.

Old pops and grandpops are the guys who have been hanging on to rotting steel hulks that were once treasured trucks, tractors and cars but that now litter their front, side and back yards. They're the ones who for years have been saying, "Honey, I know you want that space for the big rabbit hutch, but just another season in that spot and I know it will be worth a lot of money!"

Well, turns out they were right.

The value of scrap metal is rising rapidly, driven largely by industrial demand in the fast-growing Far East. Prices not long ago hovered around $80 per ton, which just wasn't high enough to lure those vehicles away from a life as lawn ornaments. But at one area scrap dealer last week, the price for junk cars went from $235 per ton at 10:30 a.m. to $250 per ton by late afternoon.

So pops and grandpops are yanking the bindweed off the steering wheel, picking the mouse skeletons out of the old upholstery, jacking up the old geezer of a car and somehow getting it off to the scrap metal dealer, who is more than happy to take possession of its increasingly valuable constituent parts.

All this is good. The landscapers among us who cherish tidy yards are especially pleased. But the run on junkers spurs a few concerns.

One is that the folks who live near the scrap metal operations are getting justifiably concerned about all the broken glass, oil, antifreeze and pieces of bumper or backseat spring that have begun to litter their streets. It's not a good idea to take the mess from your backyard and spread portions of it on someone else's street.

Second, what's turned some folks into recyclers has turned others into thieves. With prices for certain metals -- such as copper, bronze, stainless steel and aluminum -- moving ever higher, that puts everything from beer kegs, manhole covers, bronze sculptures and copper wiring at risk of theft.

Nationally, about 300,000 stainless kegs are lost a year to thieves who sell them at recycling yards, according to the Beer Institute. One art expert says commissions for public sculpture these days are increasingly for works in stone because bronze ones are so frequently stolen.

And right here in Maine, thieves who snatched copper wiring from at least six electricity substations last year caused power outages for the customers of those utilities.

Ultimately, though, we're not here to scold, and no one needs to be told that stealing and making messes are bad. What we want to do is mark what may be the passing of a distinctly Maine way of life -- the vehicle-strewn yard. But before we go overboard, not everything is disappearing out of Maine's yards.

Thank goodness, there are still all those old refrigerators out there.