Scrapping Australia

Thought i'd do a thread on my local news, update scrap prices here in Melbourne Australia and just stuff i'm doing relating to scrapping this side of the world.
maybe other aussies will join in with local updates from their town too.

anyway so I been making some trips to the scrap yards finally, been dropping off scrap steel mostly, my wires and some copper.
yesterday I loaded up steel and went to another scrap yard nearby, they don't pay for steel under 1 tonne, instead they have a big bin out front
where you can throw in your steel, after hours too! I wasn't gonna give them my steel for free so I went back to my first yard and got my fair whack.
about $25

scrap steel, or pressing steel as they call it here is very low atm, $120 tonne, or 12c kg, heavy steel is more though.
there's scrap yards still paying $200 tonne, apararently yards that have ongoing contracts to supply steel at old rates, but i'm told steel orders are down and they are stockpiling it or selling cheap. But it's steel, steel is a by product of scrapping e-waste to me atm, in comparison to crt's needing disposal, getting $120 tonne for steel rubbish is a pleasure.
soon I'll be better equiped to pick up larger items and steel is a very handy cash flow machine in between building stockpiles of the good stuff.

low grade power boards were an issue for me 'cos stacking 'em up takes up a lot of space, they don't sell for much at all, $130 tonne, 13c kg so 1c kg more then pressing steel. I can get 30c kg but I think they need to be intact as boards and I don't want to stack 'em until I get enough to sell.
I scrapped most the boards so far of alloy & copper bits I wanted, left on the flyback transformers and piled them up in a pit I made for them, nup, don't want them stacking up in sight like that so I've settled for the 13c kg just up the road.



My makeshift pit made from stacked up cement blocks & dryers, it worked until it got full..



There's some key points about taking the 13c kg option for me that pay off, firstly I can take the flybacks off and sell 'em as transformers I think, will find out for sure,
might try cutting one in half to see what's actually inside.
secondly I asked the scrap yard if I can crush the boards down so I can fit more in, yep no worries, that's what the're doing anyway, get crushed up and sent to china.
so this is awesome! I started today taking off the flybacks, toss boards into a bin and using a heavy bar I'm crushing them down into smaller bits, it's quick and they crush real easy and now can fit a lot more weight into the space.

inside my bin, some crushed tv boards..



insulated wires out of general household type e-waste are all too small to strip, appart from degassuing cables off crt's, there simply is no point in stripping wire.
there's industrial stuff and things with solid cores whatever, but generally, scrapping e-waste, tv's, pc's, vacc's ect,
there's about 40% copper in the weight of insulated wire, the scrap yard pays 40% anyway, so you would be stripping wire to get the same money, no point.
infact if your yard lets you leave on the plug ends, your better off.

I'll be advertising my business soon and over the next 12 months hope to establish myself with a good setup and a steady flow of stock.
it's probably a little different here in oz' then it is say in the states as the competition for e-waste is very minimal, transfer stations and landfills are being
innundated with e-waste, I'm overwhelmed when I drop off empty crt's at my transfer station as to just how much e-waste they are brought in a day,
so much that they divert a lot of pc's ect straight into the scrap steel pit, honestly it's such a shame when I see them all piled up, so i'm going to take advantage
of it, if people are willing to drop it off then surely they will be willing to have me come and pick it up? we'll see..

I recieved my business name certificate and ABN in the mail so technically i'm in business!

looking for a cheap transporter van, instead of putting too much into a used van, I figured i'll just get one good enough to get me through a year or so
and then look into something more modern that I can sign write ect.
what I will be investing in now is a new trailer to hook up to the van, I want a good caged trailer and there's a place nearby that do custom made trailers
so look out for pics when I get all that set up!

Mornings I like to scoot around the suburbs on my trike, saves fuel and keeps me fit, it's handy 'cos if I find something I can use it as a tolley..



Today got a couple good loads..



2 big flat screens and 2 oil filled heaters



Well I hope to add more as I go, make it like a scrappers blog, i'll get some prices up and add more pics too.

Have you considered getting a contract with the transfer station to get all of there e-waste? That could be a big money maker.

Cool! Man, Good luck! I cut one of those flyback transformers in half once, posted pics of it somewhere here. Looked pretty much like any other transformer inside, with the usual copper windings, with some kind of insulation molded all around. That insulation around it though, just turned into a dust cloud when the chopsaw blade hit it

I feel the copper amt of the fly back to small For the work the plastic and steel give good weigh = value as CB - I feel - but to each his own

yeah it's seems best I just leave them on the boards, the yard doesn't know what they are so if there's nothing really inside
then it's pointless taking one in cut up to show them, yeah may aswell just leave them on the boards and give some weight to them.

next one they don't know about are magnetrons from microwaves, what is the rod that goes through it made of?
doesn't seem much value in them, scrap steel?

magnetron's from microwaves, can be sold as copper bearing . now if you have the time separate the upper box from the magnet area with a good pull you will find a nice copper wire . The tubular object that has magnets and aluminum around it is mostly copper (most of the time ) but even i often just put to copper bearing if i get overwhelmed . I do believe we all have gold at our fingertips (poor mans gold) but even you see how fast you can crap out your surroundings with 2 to 3 weeks findings (if not just one day) If I was a hermit and single with no kids and father responsibility maybe I could keep up with the flow that people toss to trash I am finding it hard to keep up . E waste is real mining a ton of crushed boards is brimming with metals guaranteed each and every Ton ,can the same be said for ore from the ground , Countries like Germany have little to none natural ores but they now have Urbain mining from purchased e waste

Still on the low grade boards, amazing how things can change in a few days.
this week prices have dropped a lot for everything, and whilst last week low grade boards
here were $130 tonne this weeks price is $80 tonne! now that's a huge drop, so much so
that it's not even worth me holding these to sell, even crushing them down, they still take up space.

So once again i've changed my low grade system, now, stuff it, they are crushed and put into shred steel (pressing)
which is the only thing that didn't drop this week, probably 'cos it was already so low.. $120 tonne.
if I just crush as I go the boards will not be noticable in my shred but for now with my large pile,
i'm filling up scrapped microwaves.

good thing I took my copper wire in last week, $2.30kg, this week $1.80 kg, again a huge drop, there was a guy with about 5 tonnes yesterday, if he went friday instead he would of got $500 tonne more!

here's this weeks prices per kilo..

copper

Milberry $5.30
Candy $5.10
Burnt $4.85
pvc wire 30% $0.90
pvc wire 43% $1.80
elec motors $0.53

Aluminium

extrusion $1.15
domestic $0.90
wheel rims $1.20
cast $0.95
cans $0.70
gear boxes $0.40

Brass

70/30 $3.70
mixed $3.45
irony 35% fe $1.75

Stainless

304 solids $1.00
316 solids $1.15
irony 50% fe $0.20

Radiators

Brass/CU $3.50
AL/CU $2.65
Aluminium $0.80

Miscellaneous

Gun Metal $3.85
Lead soft $1.20
Lead Weights $0.60
Lead Batteries $0.42
Circuit Boards $0.08
Pewter $2.90
Venetian Blinds $0.65

Foxes $20 ea
Wild Dogs $50 ea

Keep a look out for fowlers vacola pots too!
the older ones, the orange pots are saught after by collectors.
I found one and a bunch of jars, washed the jars and put it on ebay.

check out how much it sold for, the buyer rocked up first thing in the morning to pick it up..

Fowlers Vacola unit & 43 Jars | eBay

I almost fell off my chair when I saw what it ended for, was feeling a little guilty so I gave the buyer
a gardening book, a big jar and a set of silver plated cutlery I found aswell.

stuff picking up tv's, pots man! look for pots!

surprised to see the drop with copper related items as copper is holding well enough but maybe the yards know whats happening first . or looking to make a good buck at your expense As I jot this, copper is $3.70 and been bouncing up to $3.80 and down to 3.70 of course

was thinking about it whilst on the dunny and could only think that this company is sims,
the're international now and probably go by futures prices rather then today's price,
so if they see the future copper orders have dropped on the stock market, they follow suit.
they kinda buy today with tommorow's prices as they aren't gonna sell today what they buy today.

so I think if your still getting high prices and your thinking of cashing in, then i'd be doing that now.
otherwise it may be a while until prices go back to normal.
for me, i'll be treating my good copper and alloy just like high grade boards, stack until they go to the moon,
most my copper comes from me value adding, putting in more time to fiddle for the bits, so I treasure it,
will not give my treasure away.