Tin cans - recycle or weigh in?

One_Five_Four

Being, as one mate put it, 'fiscally aware', and noticing that scrap metal seems to be of some value these days, I was wondering if anyone has tried keeping all their old food tins and weighing them in periodically at a scrapyard rather than just putting them into their local Council's recycling bins?

Many of our pet food tins and beer cans are non-ferrous (aluminium alloy I believe) and the rest are steel, along with bottle tops, etc.

Thanks for any thoughts (and sorry if this has been covered elsewhere - I searched but didn't find it).

xoAmyox

I knew of a local charity that used to do this. But they were only able to send in a ton at a time for scrap, that's a lot of cans!

SailorSam

http://www.novelisrecycling.co.uk/

Kiran

I know a guy who does this for charity. He is a cleaner at our site offices and he collects all the ali cans from the bins, takes them home gives them a rinse the crushes them.We gave him some clean 1T bags (similar to those builder merchants deliver sand in) and once he has a full bag he calls a scrappy to collect it. He then donates his proceeds. He's been doing it for a few years and once told me that there is no merit to collecting the steel cans however he has managed to raise a fair bit from ali drinks cans.

HTH

zaber86

Each can is worth about 1.2p-ish. So yeah can be worth saving, but don't plan to retire off of them.

One_Five_Four

Thanks folks. I'll give it a whirl and let you know how I get on.

mthanry

Hi,

I collect them while walking back from town to home. It helps keep the place clean and I can trade them back in exchange for Tesco Clubcard points.

I do the same with milk bottles.

When I have enough to fill the boot of my car, I go drop them on my way to shopping, no detour.

It's not a lot of money but not a lot of effort neither.

M.

PasturesNew

I started collecting them. Had four HUGE bags.... drove 20 miles to a recycling place, bloke gave me £2 and said it was out of pity as they'd not usually take such a small volume in.

I lob them in the public recycling bins now.

patman99

Certainly worth doing. I collect aluminium & steel cans and other stuff. Pays to keep tinfoil separate from cans though as the price per tonne is different.

If you have a garage or shed, then collect away. If you have a large car or access to a van, then you can cash them in at the scrappy but don't forget to take photo ID or they won't let you trade.

fannyadams

Tesco recycling machines give you 1 green point for every 2 aluminium cans you put in there.
more info here
how else can I pay for stuff like days out for the kidz?

patman99

So Tesco give you 1p per 2 cans, which are worth 2.4p at the scrappy ?. I see a business idea coming along.

Just looked at Tescos site. Nearest recycling centre to me is Chelmsford. Not worth the hassle.