3 Ways To Get More Money For Your Scrap Metal

22 September 2015
 Categories: Industrial & Manufacturing, Articles


If your company makes products out of various types of metals, you probably know that you can sell all your scrap pieces as a way to make money. This process is called scrap metal recycling, but did you know there are right and wrong ways to do this? If you learn how to scrap your metals the right ways, you could increase the amount of money you are taking in from this specific part of your business. Here are three tips that could help you make more money on your scrap metal recycling.

Keep Metals Separate

The first important thing to realize is that you will get a lot more money for your scrap metals if you sort them. If you throw every type of metal you have into one dumpster, the workers at the scrapyard will have to spend time sorting the items, and you will not get paid according to what you actually sold them. You will earn a straight rate, which is probably lower than the rate you could have received if you had separated the items.

As you sort your scrap, the most important thing to do is keep the ferrous metals separate from the nonferrous metals. Ferrous metals contain iron, which means they are magnetic, and these metals are typically worth less than nonferrous metals.

Once you sort them by ferrous or nonferrous, you can then sort them even further by the actual type of metal they are. Some common types are aluminum, brass, and copper, and each type is worth a different price.

Prepare The Scrap Metals

The second step to take involves preparing your scrap metals, and this is something that may only be needed with certain items. Preparing the metals involves two different steps:

  1. Cutting them into small pieces – If you turn in metals that are in large pieces, a scrapyard will have to cut them into smaller pieces before they sell them. Because of this, you might get a higher rate if you complete this step before selling the scrap. You can call your local scrapyard to see if they have any certain measurements for this.
  2. Removing steel from nonferrous scrap pieces – If any of your nonferrous pieces of scrap have steel on them, you should remove the steel parts. A scrapyard will usually reduce the price of nonferrous metals when the items contain any amount of steel. For example, if you are scrapping an old aluminum door that contains steel screws, you will get more for the door if you remove the steel screws.

Once your metals are prepared, you can load them up and bring them to a scrapyard, but there is one other thing to consider before doing this.

Save Up And Watch The Market

To make the most amount of money on your scrap metal, there are two more things you should know. The first is that many scrapyards will pay more money per pound or ton for large quantities. If you can accumulate a lot of scrap to sell all at once, you are likely to get a better rate on it.

The second thing to understand is market prices fluctuate on metals. If you hold onto your scrap until the market reaches a high point with prices, you could earn even more money on your scrap metals. Scrap metal is like any other commodity; it is all about timing.

To learn more about prices on scrap metals, you can call a scrapyard. They can give you quotes over the phone, and they can even arrange to deliver a scrap dumpster to your business if you would like one.


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