in one of my games i had a community running at around 1950's tech level based around a metal foundry from before the war. (i didn't wanna nuke my home town so the place survived
) a big part of their economy was scrap/salvage from anywhere they could get it from for the manufacture of goods. actually used this as a plot device to send the team on some road clearing missions including sending them to lead a convoy up to Corning and evaluate the condition of the glassworks there(it did get nuked).