Since installation by former AT&T "Ma Bell" across the US and the Atlantic in 1955, coaxial cables have powered American phones, TV, and internet until fiber optics' growth in the 1980s. Today, most coaxial cables are abandoned on the streets, telephone poles, and basements with little plan for proper removal. To learn more about the afterlife of coax cables, we visited our local scrapyard and saw that these cables are tossed away because they're less than 1% copper and thus valueless.