i need a scrap mans advice.

Bangerchick

I don't think the scrap men are happy at the moment! Scrap steel has dropped from £130/t to £45/t here in Kent over the course of around 4 weeks. Although the price varies quite a lot across the UK, all areas have seen massive declines recently.

I understand that other scrap metals such as ally and copper have also seen significant drops - alloy wheel and catalytic converters have both seen significant falls too.

My advice - if you have the room, I'd keep hold of your cans until the market picks up a bit. As for how much you'd need to collect - I would guess that the scrappies wouldn't be interested in anything much less than 100kg (thats a lot of cans!!!)

samfromcas

hi all i also collect a bit of scrap for extra money i wondered if anybody knew of any websites that give up to date prices of scrap ie ferrous alloy stainless copper etc thanks sam

Rolandtheroadie

As bangerchick says, the bottoms fell out the market (a m8's a banger racer too an lifts my cars when I'm done).
I've 3 tonnes of rangerover and other metal lying in the drive which was worth as much as £500 scrap a few months ago now worth about £100.

Loose aluminium cans in September were £650 per ton (thats about 64000 coke cans, I checked once).

All recyclable guide prices can be found at www.letsrecycle.com .

on_a_money_mission

Scrap metal prices may be falling now but they were much lower when I was working in that field a few years ago.

The aluminium can recycling collection network is subsidised by the packaging industry due to laws that require certain percentages of waste packaging to be recycled. There's a complicated system of market traded certificates to prove compliance for packaging producers and sellers that I won't bore you with, so although commodity prices are important for can prices, they are not the only issue. This means you probably get the best prices from a cash for cans recycling centre - although many scrap merchants are in the network too. The current price is £650/tonne for loose alucans.

As an individual the best way to make money from recycling your own scrap is probably by collecting buckets of non-ferrous or precious metals by type, ie copper, brass, gold jewellery etc sorted separately. (Not forgetting old mobiles, used printer cartridges etc)

You need bulk for ferrous metals, so something the size of a car is worth selling to a breaker but a washing machine isn't. However if metal prices keep falling then an old car may not be worth anything as the yard will have set costs to cover the proper disposal of tyres, fluids etc as well as cover their licensing. It's not that long ago that you had to pay to scrap a car.

If you have a larger pool of people to collect things like cans, paper and textiles, such as a school or workplace, then recycling can help make money.

I do know people who make a bit of extra cash through recycling, and there was a couple who paid for a holiday the other week through tesco club card points from a reverse vending machine, that gave points for used packaging. If there's one local to you it might be worth trying.

starjumper

Phoned our local scrap man and alu is only 15p per kilo, he's advised us to collect it and store it until the price rises.

Hope that helps someone.