Metal recycling

veryintrigued

Hi all

Being having a clear out and have found lots of cable that I can strip for the copper. Does anyone know what a 'good' price is per kg please?

Also I currently recycle all my cans and foil through the roadside recycling. Should I decide to take these to a local scrap dealer - does anyone know a decent price for aluminium and tin cans please?

Thanks in advance all.

ljonski

http://www.alupro.org.uk/recycling-service-locator.html
ring a couple of non- ferrous scrap dealers for prices of cable

Hth

veryintrigued

ljonski wrote: »

http://www.alupro.org.uk/recycling-service-locator.html
ring a couple of non- ferrous scrap dealers for prices of cable

Hth

Many thanks for this.

I searched this site (Martin's money) and see a few others are doing similarly

patman99

Shrouded copper £1500 p/t
Steel (inc. cans) £145 p/t
Aluminium cans £800 p/t

Prices from -
http://www.letsrecycle.com

This site tells you the 'average gate price' for just about any type of materials, and is very accurate.

As for collecting cans rather than putting them out for kerbside collection, I do this already and even get regular donations from a friend and from my parents.
It does however, pay to invest in a good quality can-crusher as you can fit more squashed cans in a bag than unsquashed ones.

If you are unsure which is which, then hang a magnet up near the can-crusher and run your cans past it.
Add your tinfoil (which doesn't actually contain tin) to your Aluminium can bag.

veryintrigued

patman99 wrote: »

Shrouded copper £1500 p/t
Steel (inc. cans) £145 p/t
Aluminium cans £800 p/t

Prices from -
http://www.letsrecycle.com

This site tells you the 'average gate price' for just about any type of materials, and is very accurate.

As for collecting cans rather than putting them out for kerbside collection, I do this already and even get regular donations from a friend and from my parents.
It does however, pay to invest in a good quality can-crusher as you can fit more squashed cans in a bag than unsquashed ones.

If you are unsure which is which, then hang a magnet up near the can-crusher and run your cans past it.
Add your tinfoil (which doesn't actually contain tin) to your Aluminium can bag.

Many thanks for this advice and information - much appreciated

Poosmate

I strip any copper wiring I get, I'd rather get £5k pt for it than £1.5k pt. I find the easiest way to strip it is to use a sharp utility blade and slice off along the length of the plastic coating. It's easy then to just pull the copper wire out.

I also pop any bits of aluminium foil inside the aluminium cans, I'd rather get £800 pt for it than £60 pt! I know that sounds anal but I don't sit for hours doing that, just have a can handy by the Quality Street/Roses or in the kitchen for the Actimel/coffee lids.

I keep food cans too. I haven't managed to crush any yet because obviously they're a bit more substantial than alu cans which I stamp on - I don't want to break my ankle! I wondered about the food cans, should I take the labels off them? Also, what if I was to use the can opener on the bottom end then stand on them whilst they're on their side? Surely with both ends removed they would be much weaker structurely? Actually, I'll go and do one and post back the results.

Does anyone know what metal the bottoms of pringles canisters are made of? Yeah I do them too! Oh and catering size coffee canisters! My garage is like a mini scrapyard!

Sorry to hijack your thread Veryintrigued, just a few more questions for anyone who may be able to answer:

If any of you already do this at home, when do you take your scrap? When you have a car load? Or do you wait till you get a decent weight? And if so what's a decent weight to cash in? Also, do you take one metal at a time?

Sorry for all the questions and sorry there were more than a few! As you can probably tell, I haven't weighed in any of my scrap yet.

I'll go do my can now and post back the results.

Poo

Poosmate

Back!

Well that was so easy! I can't believe I haven't done it before! Guess I'll be doing some tin crushing tomorrow.

Hope that helps someone.

Poo

veryintrigued

Update for you guys and thanks for the advice so far.

Visited my local scrapyard with 3kg of copper cable I had stripped (copper and tinned copper types) and they handed over £10 (well £9-80 actually).

Ok a little fiddly but well worth doing!

Will be visiting again on Sat with some more scrap including two washing machines!!

Will also be dropping in a number of steel and aluminium cans I've collected.

Poosmate

Thanks for the update VI and well done on your "little fiddly" free cash.

I am hoping to earn maybe £30-£50 per year out of my scrapping venture but that's only because I do very little bits every now and again.

I'm pretty sure I could up that if I concentrated on collecting and processing more but it hasn't become a second source of income yet. When push comes to shove, I will be picking up any empty drinks cans that find their way onto the grassed areas around my property and possibly even going out in search of (on foot of course).

Good luck with your next visit to the scrapyard.

Poo

Blobby8_2

Poosmate wrote: »

I will be picking up any empty drinks cans that find their way onto the grassed areas around my property and possibly even going out in search of (on foot of course).
Poo

I dont now where abouts you are but you will almost certainly pick up loads of empty cans on a one hour circular walk.
I walk 3+ miles a day (same route) and very rarely do I not fill a
carrier bag with carp people chuck out of their cars.

Poosmate

Thanks Blobby. I think it's nice that one can incorporate several tasks for free and be able to make a few bob out of it. I could do with getting out more and getting some more exercise and if I can clean up the streets and earn a bit too that's a bonus. Maybe I'll start when the weather gets better.

I still have cans to crush, tins to flatten and copper wire to strip yet, I want to process that first as it's taking up more room than it needs to at present. I do a little bit each day, like whilst waiting for the kettle to boil (little pockets of time that would otherwise be wasted).

Poo