Whether you have collected bags of aluminum cans at home or stacks of sheet metal and copper wire at your manufacturing facility, an excess of scrap metals can feel like it’s taking over your area. Offering your scrap metals is a great means to clear down your garage or warehouse and make money in the process.
How much money you can make depends on the type of metals you have also as the condition of those metals. For instance, aluminum scrap prices generally speaking are lower than copper scrap prices. To find out how much your scrap metal is worth, the expert team at Gardner Metal Recycling’s Austin facility can provide current scrap metal rates for all your scrap.
High-Value Scrap Materials
There are several commonly used metals that will bring a high price whenever you sell your scrap. Typically, these are non-ferrous metals. To determine if you have non-ferrous metals, hold a magnet up to the metal. If it does not stick, you have non-ferrous metals. These include copper, brass and bronze.
- Copper: Copper is frequently used in pipes, wiring, gutters and roofing materials aswell as kettles and cookware. Copper scrap prices vary considering the grade of copper you are selling. For example, #1 grade copper brings a higher price than #3 grade copper because #1 grade copper is more pure.
- Brass: Composed of copper and zinc, brass is another high-value scrap material. Brass is usually discovered around the home in bathroom fixtures, doorknobs, clocks and also zippers. Often used in construction, red brass, semi-red brass and yellow metal are found in valves, pipe fittings, plumbing, water pumps and more.
- Bronze: Likewise, bronze also can bring a good price. Manganese and aluminum bronze are routinely used to make gears, machine parts and bearings.
Low-Value Scrap Materials
There are particular metals whose price tends become lower due to their prevalence and supply. These usually are ferrous metals, which attract magnets, though exceptions include stainless steel and aluminum.
- Steel: Steel is commonly used in everything from soup cans or shelving to steel beams and cables. If you have just a few pieces or pounds, you most likely are better off dropping off your steel scrap at your local recycling center. But, if you have a vast amount of this ferrous metal—i.e., thousands of pounds—you will get a fair price for it.
- Stainless steel: While also popular, stainless steel will earn you a better price than steel, in part because it is non-ferrous. Used in a range of items from appliance doors to sinks to cookware and more, metal scrap prices tend to trend higher than those of steel, particularly if the metal is clean.
- Aluminum: Although non-ferrous, aluminum is another low-value scrap metal because it is accessible. One of the mostly sold scrap metals is aluminum cans because they are found every-where. However, you might be able to receive greater aluminum scrap prices if you sell aluminum scrap such as aluminum coil, screen or door frames, or sheet metal.
Factors That Affect Scrap Metal Price
Although the type of scrap metal you have helps determine the price, how much you receive for your scrap metal will also rely on the condition of the steel and how easy it is to extract the metal. For instance, stripped copper wire earns somewhat higher prices than wrapped copper wire because the recycler has to remove the insulation from the latter.
Likewise, scrap metals coated in paint or rust or that contain screws or caps may receive a lower price because the recycler will need to remove these items before it can be processed.
Sorting your scrap metals is another way to make sure you receive the most current rate for your scrap. Placing all your copper together in one container will ensure that you get a competitive copper rate. However, if you get copper mixed in with steel and aluminum, you’re more likely to receive a rate based on those low-value metals rather than the copper.
Need for certain scrap metals also will affect the price you receive. For instance, if there is plenty of stainless steel scrap but production utilizing stainless steel is reduced, stainless steel scrap prices is lower until need begins to increase.
How Gardner Gets Its Pricing
To make sure that you receive the most competitive price for your scrap metals, the expert team at Gardner Metal Recycling constantly reviews the marketplace to determine the current rate for all types of scrap steel. These scrap metal prices fluctuate often, even daily, so we check frequently to bring our rates in line with current demands.
