Planning a Trip to the Scrap Yard? How to Get the Most from Your Junk Metal

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Are you in need of a little extra cash? If so, recycling your old scrap metal can provide you with the opportunity you need to earn some extra money. However, before you load up your truck and head to the local scrap yard, take a moment to review the tips below to ensure you are able to get the most money possible for each and every ounce of metal you have to recycle.

Take the Time to Clean Your Metal Products

You may think that a bit of dirt or excess water in the bottom of an old metal container will have very little impact on its resale value at the scrap yard. However, the truth is, soiled products often sell for far less at this particular venue. This reduction in price is not due to the fact that the product is actually dirty, but rather because of the excess weight that comes along with the buildup of dirt or liquids.

For instance, an aluminum soda can is actually worth the exact same amount regardless of whether or not there is some soda left in the bottom of the can. However, you will receive less at the scrap yard for a load of dirty cans because the recycling center must try and guess at how much aluminum is present versus how much of the weight is attributed to the excess liquid.

In order to ensure they don't take a loss on the purchase of your cans, the recycling center will pay a much smaller premium for your dirty cans than it would have if you took the time to empty the cans completely.

Always Sort Your Metals

Different types of metal will sell for different prices due to a fluctuation in supply and demand. Furthermore, the ability of some metals to retain their original properties even after being recycled multiple times will allow these materials to fetch a much higher selling price. However, if you do not take the time to separate the different metals in your haul, the scrap yard will simply pay you one low price for the entire load rather than determining your payment based on the different metals it contains.

If you are not familiar enough with the different types of metal to accurately separate your load by metal, you can still increase your overall payout by separating your load into ferrous and nonferrous metals.

In order to accomplish this task, you will simply require a standard refrigerator magnet. Take a moment to place the magnet on each piece of metal in your load, if the magnet sticks, the metal is ferrous. If the magnet does not stick, the metal is non ferrous. This method of sorting your metal works because ferrous metals contain iron and therefore allow the magnet to stick. However, it is also this iron content that causes ferrous metals to be worth far less than nonferrous metals.  

Learn more tips by talking to local resources such as Full Circle Recycling.

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