household scrap?

yazzine

I have bits and bobs around the house e.g. a small tv that can work if repaired an old microwave a few empty cans etc.

I have heard of companies who buy these from you (very low price), unfortunately the companies I've checked out in the yellow pages don't take household appliances.

Any one know how to find them? will do an online search once the little one takes a nap.

lilykim

If you are not able to sell them, your local council probably has a scheme where you can donate them. They then either fix them or use the scrap parts. They should collect free.

lincroft1710

As the value of non working TVs and old microwaves is minimal/zero I cannot imagine any company wanting to buy these. It's even difficult to give away working TVs on Freegle.

yazzine

I thought if I could get a little in return that would be lovely otherwise my next step was the local council.

A few months a go next door called a company who came and took their old tv for £5, it was big and ugly. Sadly for me the number's been lost. They said the guy said that they also take old irons, toasters, kettles, cookers, microwaves etc - working or not and prices starting from 10p.

Not had much luck with google, but will try again in the morning.

Poosmate

If you are into recycling and have the time, patience and a bit of room have you thought about dismantling the appliances and removing the valuable scrap within them?

Copper is the main thing that springs to mind. Remove all of the wiring from the appliances, scrapyards will accept coated copper but give a much lower price for it than if it was stripped of it's coating. I use a stanley knife blade to carefully slice part of the casing off a length of wiring then just hold the copper in one hand and pull off the plastic with the other. It takes a while (which is where the patience comes in) but if you did a bit a day or say an hour a week then cashed it in once a year (unless you have so much you don't have room to store it!), you may earn a bit more than trying to flog the whole appliance.

Check out the prices of metals here:

http://www.letsrecycle.com/prices/metals

Please be careful if you decide to dismantle things for the copper inside of them though, I believe some appliances can hold a charge of electricity in them even if they are nowhere near a power supply.

Check out Youtube for vids of people extracting copper from tv's and microwaves.

Hope that helps,

Poo

lincroft1710

Poosmate wrote: »

Copper is the main thing that springs to mind. Remove all of the wiring from the appliances, scrapyards will accept coated copper but give a much lower price for it than if it was stripped of it's coating. It takes a while (which is where the patience comes in) but if you did a bit a day or say an hour a week then cashed it in once a year (unless you have so much you don't have room to store it!), you may earn a bit more than trying to flog the whole appliance.

Check out the prices of metals here:

http://www.letsrecycle.com/prices/metals

Very informative site, thanks

Given the weight of copper wiring, don't you need to dismantle quite a few appliances before it's worth your while making a trip to a metal recycling facility.

yazzine

:)A good idea thankyou - did not think of that just assumed that they repaired and then sent off to other countries as no one here would buy them and not worth it following a repaire.

With the way I try and keep things until their on their last legs it would take alot more then a year.

Space wise its a no no as I live in a little one bed house with two kids and managing to keep that clean is bad enough - althoug I do have a normal swing bin on top of the secret:Dtreats box with bits of metal / copper (metal buttons from clothing, tags from handbags, zippers, bottle tops), etc. plus little bits left by the builder when we had the heating put in. But this would take too much time.

Poosmate

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Given the weight of copper wiring, don't you need to dismantle quite a few appliances before it's worth your while making a trip to a metal recycling facility.

Yes it does take a long time which is why I suggested cashing in once a year. I always keep my food tins/cat food tins and wash them as soon as I've emptied them, swill them out straight away - much easier than leaving the residue to dry on then you have to scrub them (ew).

Luckily I have a garage to store them in so when I get a bagfull bung them in there and when I get enough to reasonably fill the car I'll take them to the scrapyard then. I think if I only get a few quid it'll pay my petrol to work and back for a day and it won't really cost me anything as there are many scrap yards around where I work.

Poo

Poosmate

yazzine wrote: »

:)A good idea thankyou - did not think of that just assumed that they repaired and then sent off to other countries as no one here would buy them and not worth it following a repaire.

With the way I try and keep things until their on their last legs it would take alot more then a year.

Space wise its a no no as I live in a little one bed house with two kids and managing to keep that clean is bad enough - althoug I do have a normal swing bin on top of the secret:Dtreats box with bits of metal / copper (metal buttons from clothing, tags from handbags, zippers, bottle tops), etc. plus little bits left by the builder when we had the heating put in. But this would take too much time.

I always keep stuff till it's dead on it's feet (and beyond sometimes because one day I'll get round to getting it fixed) <--- yeah like that's ever going to happen! lol

Anyway, good luck with getting rid of your stuff and hope you get a few bob for them.

Poo

paddyrg

If your old TV is a CRT-type, do not open it to recover the copper unless you REALLY know what you're doing. Just because it is unplugged does not mean it isn't holding a whole heap of charge, and the scan coils on those operate at upto 50kV(!)

yazzine

I tried the fizzy drinks cans, collected lots of them and then would take them down to tesco, but the silly machine would not count them right it listed nearly all of them as 'other' and you only get 1 point per 2 aluminium cans so by the end of having a large black bin bag emptied it showed I had only put in 10 aluminium cans = 5 points.:(