2 Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Recycling Scrap Metal

Scrap metal can be difficult to handle, especially for a beginner. You may not be aware of the types of recyclable metals that have a better value in the market. Also, if you don't know what to look for, you may not get the best value from your recycling efforts.

Usually, a little research will raise the chances of you getting proper pay for what you have collected. But mistakes and misinformation cost you a lot of money and time in what should otherwise be simple scrap metal pickup.

If you're looking to make some money off your scrap metal, be sure to avoid these two mistakes.

1. Failing to Prepare Your Scrap Material

Although you might want to take the easiest way out, you may not gain much if your scrap metal isn't ready for scrapping by the time you plan to sell it. Unprepared scrap metal can drastically lower the payment you get for it.

The scrapyard technicians will have to do more work on the metal before recycling it. This process will require them to spend more time and resources. As a result, you may even get an offer for your scrap metal that you might consider to be too low.

If you can make things easier for your recycling expert, you're likely to get more money from your sale. But how do you prepare your scrap?

• Clean the metals. Make sure your scrap metal doesn't have any residue on the outside surface, such as rust and dirt.
• Break down your scrap. If a piece of scrap metal is too long or wide to fit in your vehicle, you can break it up into smaller pieces for easier handling. But take care to preserve the overall condition of the separated fragments.
• Strip off the insulation. Any insulation material on the scrap metal may give inaccurate weight results if your recycling service pays you in dollars per pound. Your recycling dealer may have to spend more time removing the insulation.

Your scrap metal dealer should easily accept your items if you've prepared them well. Besides getting a good price, you may also become one of their more reliable customers.

2. Not Sorting Your Metals by Grade

Sometimes, your scrap dealer may not allow you to sort out your metals at their door. Besides holding up other customers, the yard dealer may have to reassign their workers to first deal with your load. Worse still, your scrap metal could potentially be graded as one batch, and you'd easily get less money than you'd hoped for.

For instance, if you've bundled aluminum wire together with copper tubing, the whole batch could be paid at the price of whichever material fetches a lower price. This difference can quickly add up, and you may get way less than you should.

You may also want to sort out the scrap based on the metal type (usually ferrous and non-ferrous metals). You could use a magnet to tell the difference between the two types of metal. A ferrous metal will attract a magnet, while a non-ferrous one will not. Iron is present only in the ferrous metal, creating the magnetic effect.

Your non-ferrous scrap materials are likely to fetch a higher price rather than just grouping them all and getting the lowest price. As an added tip, make sure that what you've brought is among the types of metals that your dealer is interested in.

Scrap metal recycling shouldn't be a hassle, and you should get payment that's worth your efforts. If you can avoid the above mistakes, you may avoid unnecessary complications and still get good value for your recycled items. Contact us at Big Daddy Scrap if you're looking for a way to get the best bang for your buck.