where there's muck, there's brass

where there's muck, there's brass

proverb There is profit to be made from the jobs that other people think are unpleasant and do not want to do. I started a portable toilet business because I knew that where there's muck, there's brass.
See also: brass
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

where there's muck there's brass

dirty or unpleasant activities are also lucrative. proverb
See also: brass, muck
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

where there’s ˌmuck there’s ˈbrass

(British English, saying) used to say that somebody has made a lot of money from an unpleasant or a dirty business activity: When they saw his enormous house and flash car they looked at each other, both thinking ‘Where there’s muck there’s brass.’
Muck is dirt or mud. Brass is an old-fashioned word for ‘money’.
See also: brass, muck
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • teach a man to fish
  • it takes a village
  • village
  • change horses in midstream, don't
  • best-laid plans go astray, the
  • the best-laid plans
  • the best-laid plans go astray
  • the best-laid plans of mice and men
  • business before pleasure
  • for want of a nail
References in periodicals archive
It's the Dutch equivalent of the pithy Yorkshire saying "where there's muck, there's brass".
The people who make brass want us to have muck
US vice president, Joe Biden also philosophises that Cyprus is now at the outset of its 'Golden Era', while Outopos philosophises when forking manure (where there's muck, there's brass) as well as speaking it.
Go mad and vote in the EU elections
"WHERE there's muck, there's brass" - but the Government is not making the most of it, according to the House of Lords Science and Technology committee.
CPI shows the world how it can be done; A NATIONAL innovation centre based on Teesside has been highlighted as 'crucial' to the UK's bioeconomy in a major House of Lords investigation. KELLEY PRICE finds out more
"Where there's muck, there's brass. You have to step in and get your hands dirty."
To little Elle, Duncan isn't a multi-millionaire or the man on telly, he's her pal; Mum tells of bond between tycoon and little girl who doesn'tletdisability stop her from living life to the full
As he collects bird, dog, hippo, wyvern and gargoyle droppings, he meets people who rely on waste to make a living, from lowly night soil men and aristocratic lavatory inventors to entrepreneurs who know that where there's muck, there's brass.
GOOD READS
BBC Four, Tuesday, 9pm They say that where there's muck, there's brass.
DIGITAL
Where there's muck, there's brass - especially if you're planning on a spot of home demolition.
TRICKS OF THE TRADE..
Where there's muck, there's brass. And when there was Brass, you were guaranteed laughs.
Rewind: Laughs wi' nowt taken out at Brass monkey business; Brass (ITV/C4) 1983 - 1990 (two series, 1983 and 1984, on ITV) and one, 1990, on C4)
On the one hand, Manchester's manufacturers, utilizing values and beliefs that reflected its citizens' definition of themselves as an urban-industrial workforce, correlated smoking factory and domestic chimneys with wealth creation and personal well-being; a narrative neatly encapsulated in a northern English expression that has survived to this day: "Where there's muck, there's brass [money]." On the other hand, anti-pollution activists (including working-class socialists such as Allen Clarke) represented the columns of black smoke as "barbarous" signs of waste and inefficiency, stressing the unnecessary loss of life and health, the extra costs in washing and cleaning, and the reckless misuse of finite natural resources.
Common ground: integrating social and environmental history
Kim and Aggie gave student Osla their unique cleaning treatment on Too Posh To Wash, their new series featuring the cream of society who have allowed their cleanliness habits to go sour and proved the saying "Where there's muck, there's brass".
Britain's dirtiest woman? I didn't wash this bra for two years..I don't brush my teeth or take showers regularly..and I change the sheets on my bed 3 times a year..maybe
If you take away the brass coins, what's the point of saying "where there's muck, there's brass?" Before the arriviste Canadian bank boss gets his way, let's hear it from traditionalists who want to keep things as they are.
Brassed off? ..
WHERE there's muck, there's brass - and that's certainly proved the case for SITA UK, which is boosting capacity for energy-generating household waste at its Haverton Hill plant.
Environment: Waste power grows; Haverton site to up output 50%
WHERE THERE'S MUCK, THERE'S BRASS: Willie Dunn shows where the scrruffy strip lies; PAVED WITH GOLD: The road access blocked by the 10ft strip
pounds 1M FOR A 10ft PLOT OF LAND; Cunning council make a killing for their taxpayers
THEY say that where there's muck, there's brass. This isn't really true of agriculture at the moment - after all we are only just clawing our way out of a deep recession - but while brass may be lacking, muck certainly isn't.
Be warned, informal waste disposal policies are tightening up soon
A partnership between a Shropshire farmer and local manufacturer is aiming to prove 'where there's muck, there's brass' and highlight a money spinning diversification for farms everywhere.
Farmer making money out of muck