Increase Your Payday With These Simple Scrap Metal Recycling Tips

A quick trip to your local scrap yard can help you to get that bit of extra cash that you need to pay for an upcoming vacation or cover an unexpected bill. However, if you are not familiar with the process of recycling scrap metal, you could find that you are walking away with far less than your metal is truly worth. This is because scrapyards routinely pay more for certain types of metal. They will also deduct a percentage from your payment if your load has any of several common issues. Thankfully, taking the time to review and implement the simple tips below can help you to avoid these issues and ultimately ensure that you walk away from the scrapyard with the biggest check possible.

Tip #1: Use A Magnet To Separate Ferrous and Nonferrous Metals

There are two main categories of metal that are accepted at most scrap yards. These categories are ferrous and nonferrous metals. The primary difference between these two types of metal is that while ferrous metals contain iron, nonferrous metals do not.

While this may not seem like a big deal to you, it is a huge deal for manufacturers who rely on recycled metals when manufacturing their products. This is because nonferrous metals are able to retain their original properties regardless of how many times they have been recycled in the past. Ferrous metals, on the other hand, will often need to be subjected to thermal processing procedures in order to obtain the desired properties. Consequently, scrapyards are often willing to pay considerably more for any nonferrous materials that you may have.

Thanks to the iron content in ferrous metals, a magnet will easily stick to these materials while falling right off of a nonferrous material. This makes it incredibly easy to split your load into the two categories of metal, even if you are unfamiliar with the individual properties which these metals display.

Tip #2: Always Take The Time To Clean Your Metal

If you are like most people, you probably don't see anything wrong with taking dirty scrap metal to your local scrapyard. After all, these metal products are simply going to be thrown into a large pile of metal while they await the recycling process. However, if you show up to the scrapyard with a load of dirty metal, you will be unpleasantly surprised to learn that your overall payment can be reduced as a result.

Water, other liquids, dirt, and debris can all add weight to your scrap metal. Since scrapyards routinely pay based on how much your load weighs, they must take care to ensure they are only paying for the metal and not for all of the debris that is on or in the metal. This is why they often reduce what they are willing to pay for any metal that has not been cleaned. Thankfully, you can easily avoid this penalty by taking the time to clean all of your metal objects before hauling them off to the a scrapyard like Summit Recycling of Penn Hills.