Big Boys Hobbies

Metal Recycling? Please give your experience/advice

HullGuitars

HullGuitars

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I know this is really off-topic. But I have been wanting to recycle metal for a long time.
My dad and I used to save coke cans when I was a little boy, and cash them in every few months. We drank a lot of soda in that family household so it was usually a couple of hundred dollars several times a year.

I do not generate that many cans, but between the aluminum/copper/brass that I dig out of the ground, find at flea markets, and generate in my family business… I would say we are throwing away an easy 2500 cans a year.
Not to mention all the cans I see while Detecting, could get from my neighbors and business partners, and around the business complex I work at.
I think it is generally good for people to reuse something other than just throwing in a landfill, and it would be nice to have a fat little check at the end of the year to maybe splurge on the kids or a small Detecting trip. My questions are…

1. How to crush, clean, and store that many cans over the period of the year.

2.What is the average exchange rate for 100 pounds of scrap aluminum cans?

3. Please give your experience and knowledge of this topic


I also know of charities where I can donate all of the pulltabs, which would be really cool in itself. Maybe collect them on a string for a year, see how long I can make it, and then donated at the end of the year… Hell I may just donate all of the aluminum period

Thank you all for your input and listening to my pointless ramble that has nothing to do with detecting
 
I recently turned in 25 pounds and got .65/lb. for them. All crushed by my foot and stored in plastic bags.

That's all I can offer at the moment.
 
The amount of space you have will probably determine whether or not you crush your cans. Of course if you are finding a couple at a time it would probably easier to just crush them as you go.

As for the copper,brass etc keep in mind that what the scrap yard calls "clean" does not necessarily mean washed. A brass valve with copper can be considered to be clean brass as the copper is a higher value item and is an ingredient of brass. If there is solder involved then it may not be considered clean. Chrome plated brass can be sold as clean brass and chrome plated copper can be sold as #1 copper.

Copper pipe is considered #1 copper unless there are soldered joints which would make it #2 Some scrap yards may grade differently but there is a code they usually go by. You can clean your stuff such as cutting copper pipe up leaving the solder joints to be #2 and you can remove the copper from brass valves if it is worth the effort. Most of your stuff just needs to be scraped off and any dirt pushed out of the inside. You may also get a higher price by having a quantity. I've sold aluminum for 75 cents a pound when the regular price was 50 cents. Any type of non-ferrous metal that you have over 100 pounds of would be worth asking before you cash it in. Do not get firm prices till the day you take it in as they can change daily. Tried to keep it short and only touched on the main points. :grin:
 
The main thing to cashing in on metals is the separation as Kemper said. One wrong piece and the hole batch gets nocked down in price. I save all my "trash" from my hunts and have buckets full. Now if I could only find the time to separate it and cash it but I end up MD'ing instead!
 
My dad and I used to save up about 10 giant plastic barrels every 6 months, and at anywhere from .45-65 cents a lb we would get around 250-300. Back then he would let me keep the money seeing that I was the one who crushed them and moved them around. This was in TN though.

Now we live in CA, and the CRV being 10 cents a bottle it pretty much forces you to recycle aluminum, cans, and plastics. IN CA, the state decides the price, not the companies. Right now its about $1.80 for a lb of aluminum, and $1.05 for plastics. I usually cash in about 15 lbs of plastic, and 10-13 lbs of aluminum twice a yr and get some good money. But then again, it isn't really profit if you have to pay the CRV.
 
My dad worked in a scrap yard/ junk yard for 35 years . The number 1 thing about collecting aluminum cans he told me , you have to keep them dry. Meaning don't collect them in a container without a lid or leave them exposed to the rain or snow uncovered. The scrap yard keeps tabs on the people that bring metal in . Wet cans equals false weight.
 
Last year my scrap found metal detecting was just under $45.
Sorting is the key to the best price.
There are lots of YouTube videos that can give detail.

I dig it, I scrap it.:D
 
Thanks for the input guys!!!! The only problems I have run into are as fallows.

1. don't really have anywhere to store that many cans. Since most of my cans are generated at my place of business,.... I need to be able to store them at my workshop. I don't want them in my way... or in the shop attracting bugs.... So I will have to give this some thought.

2. CAN CRUSHERS ARE EXPENSIVE!!!
I know several people who purchased the harbor freight models.... with mixed results. I don't want to have to unscrew this thing from the wall every few months to exchange it for one that works! So I Looked into "DECENT" crushers. they start at $18 and a nicer one with good reviews is $30.....
Hell that's 2-3 months worth of cans!
 
HullGuitars said:
Thanks for the input guys!!!! The only problems I have run into are as fallows.

1. don't really have anywhere to store that many cans. Since most of my cans are generated at my place of business,.... I need to be able to store them at my workshop. I don't want them in my way... or in the shop attracting bugs.... So I will have to give this some thought.

2. CAN CRUSHERS ARE EXPENSIVE!!!
I know several people who purchased the harbor freight models.... with mixed results. I don't want to have to unscrew this thing from the wall every few months to exchange it for one that works! So I Looked into "DECENT" crushers. they start at $18 and a nicer one with good reviews is $30.....
Hell that's 2-3 months worth of cans!
Click to expand...

Your foot is attached to your leg and is free (to do whatever you tell it) ;)
 
I take scrap metal in, a couple of times a year. They no longer give cash, to try and avoid the criminal element.
I.E Those lovely "Irish tinkers" who steal lead from church roofs, take cables from railways lines etc.

You need photo ID, and they will pay the money straight into your bank account.

I took in some lead the other day, (from a job I was working on) a bag of
old brass taps and fittings, and a bag of mixed copper and fittings.

I got just under £100 ($167)
 
I just keep brass and copper in old trash cans because they are easy to tell apart and are fast to seperate. Also i dig it like crazy out metal detecting i tried aluminum and etc but its not worth my time.
 
I oick them up detecting, trash cans at the beach I don't have to dig through, riding my bike, from friends, etc. I have a bucket in a carrier on the back of my bike. Keep cans away from the house due to roaches. I crush them with my vehicle sometimes. Lots you pick up are already flattened. I make more money from cans than I do from detecting clad. A crushed garbage bag full here gets you about $12 a bag. Mine sit out in the weather. Been scrapping cans since the seventee's. Never had a problem at a recycler due to rain water and dirt from when you find them roadside. Always good to tip the person scrapping your cans every so often. I buy mine a soda since they have to put the tips in a collection box. I've probably made 2o grand off of scrap. Plus you can dig copper and brass out of Plumbing dumpsters. I built a motor once with 5 grand I dug out of the trash in scrap. Me and my buddy got 5 grand on one trailer load we saved up. You just clean it before you stockpile it or its a PITA to clean all at once:lol:
 
itsaring-
I oick them up detecting, trash cans at the beach I don't have to dig through, riding my bike, from friends, etc. I have a bucket in a carrier on the back of my bike. Keep cans away from the house due to roaches. I crush them with my vehicle sometimes. Lots you pick up are already flattened. I make more money from cans than I do from detecting clad. A crushed garbage bag full here gets you about $12 a bag. Mine sit out in the weather. Been scrapping cans since the seventee's. Never had a problem at a recycler due to rain water and dirt from when you find them roadside. Always good to tip the person scrapping your cans every so often. I buy mine a soda since they have to put the tips in a collection box. I've probably made 2o grand off of scrap. Plus you can dig copper and brass out of Plumbing dumpsters. I built a motor once with 5 grand I dug out of the trash in scrap. Me and my buddy got 5 grand on one trailer load we saved up. You just clean it before you stockpile it or its a PITA to clean all at once

__________________
Sov gt , DFX x2, BHID 300, Dual field, CTX, Excalibur, CZ 21 8",AT Pro, TRX, RTG, Stealth, T Rex If it weren't for Plumbers, you'd have no place to go!

I'm a little slow but now I get it. :lol:

http://www.scrap-n.com/
 
Kemper said:
itsaring-
I oick them up detecting, trash cans at the beach I don't have to dig through, riding my bike, from friends, etc. I have a bucket in a carrier on the back of my bike. Keep cans away from the house due to roaches. I crush them with my vehicle sometimes. Lots you pick up are already flattened. I make more money from cans than I do from detecting clad. A crushed garbage bag full here gets you about $12 a bag. Mine sit out in the weather. Been scrapping cans since the seventee's. Never had a problem at a recycler due to rain water and dirt from when you find them roadside. Always good to tip the person scrapping your cans every so often. I buy mine a soda since they have to put the tips in a collection box. I've probably made 2o grand off of scrap. Plus you can dig copper and brass out of Plumbing dumpsters. I built a motor once with 5 grand I dug out of the trash in scrap. Me and my buddy got 5 grand on one trailer load we saved up. You just clean it before you stockpile it or its a PITA to clean all at once

__________________
Sov gt , DFX x2, BHID 300, Dual field, CTX, Excalibur, CZ 21 8",AT Pro, TRX, RTG, Stealth, T Rex If it weren't for Plumbers, you'd have no place to go!

I'm a little slow but now I get it. :lol:

http://www.scrap-n.com/
Click to expand...

I was a pipefitter and heavy machinery operator before I got into Plumbing:DI also once dug a go cart out of the trash and traded it for a boat:D
 

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I started scrapping in the mid '70's, my brother and I were maybe 10 and 12 at the time...dad said to earn some easy money, pick up aluminum cans outa the ditch...we lived a mile from a party store and we gathered thousands! I was hooked -

Now, Michigan has a ten-cent deposit on cans, and there are a lot of scavengers from time to time gathering cans, trying to supplement their unemployment or welfare bennies.

The yards here will not take any telecom copper, nor will they take copper that the insulation has been burned off.

Besides aluminum, I have scrapped copper and brass, and lead (batteries).
 
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