Recycling and reusing items in your home is a great way to significantly decrease your carbon footprint and help the environment. But do you know that, more than just recycling plastic containers, clothing, and newspaper, you can also make a buck for your metals? Metal yards are always on the lookout for scraps for metal recycling. Some of these metals include copper, steel, aluminium, brass, iron, and wires – and yes, there is actually value in them. Metal yards buy them because it is cheaper for companies to create new metals from scrap than to extract them from ore. Metal yards pay you in exchange for your discarded metals, then sell the collected scrap to refiners at competitive prices.
This process offers a mutually beneficial relationship. Households don’t need to worry about putting away appliances that no longer serve a purpose in their homes. Metal yards can buy them from you instead. They can buy parts of appliances such as a washing machine drums or reusable car parts like doors and engines. Appliance recycling can be a good way to declutter your home, help the environment, and obtain a certain amount of cash from it.
What items can you sell to metal yards?
1. Copper
A commonly used material in the structure of homes, copper features a reddish finish if it’s in good condition. It is used in plumbing pipes, roofing
materials, inside the air conditioners, and common electric wires. If you want to check, copper can be found in electrical wires underneath their black or coloured plastic insulation.
2. Brass
A weightier metal, brass is often used in plumbing fixtures and at the end of copper piping. It is also found in hardware like keys, door handles, light fixtures, and bathroom fixtures.
3. Aluminium
More than just tin cans, items made of aluminium can be found throughout your house. It is often used for gutters, siding, doors, window frames and more. What’s good about bringing aluminium in metal yards is that it saves 80% of the energy produced in the process of making it.
4. Steel
A magnet will easily stick to steel making it easier for you to determine which household items are made from it. It can be found in many places such as in your shelves, cars, and chairs.
How do I know the value of my scrap metals?
It’s as simple as grabbing a magnet. A magnet assesses metal value. If the magnet sticks to your metal, it means you have a ferrous metal in your hands. Ferrous metal like steel or iron is not worth very much but is still accepted for recycling purposes.
If the magnet does not stick to your metal, it means you have a non-ferrous metal. Examples of these are copper, aluminium, brass, stainless steel, and bronze. They are considered high-value metals and is worth more money at metal yards.
Need assistance in your metal scraps?
Now that you have an idea on which items or metals are good for selling at metal yards, you should be able to sort your metal scraps in different metal categories so you can obtain the most value from them. Endless Metals helps you maximise the value of your scrap metal while minimising your environmental impact. From residential, commercial, tradie scraps to farm, building and demolition scraps, we can assist you. Contact us so we can talk about how we can help you manage your metal.