Do you sort scrap to maximize or just throw everything together?

I dont have a lot of experience in scrap metal - only my third year - and have never worked with or for anyone else in this. I just kind of learned on my own and as I went along. Ive always done things like clean radiators by taking the non-aluminum (or brass) stuff off, sort aluminum by sheet, cast and extrusion, take alternators apart for the copper and sort by cast and irony aluminum and anything else I can do to maximize the worth of what Im taking in. I see guys come in with a pickup load of mixed stuff - radiators, tire rims (normally #1 iron), cast iron and light iron all thrown together. Everything is then offloaded in one pile and they are paid for the whole load at the light-iron rate (the lowest of anything they have in the load). Of course, then people at the yard separate the stuff into categories.

I guess my question is - How common is this? Do you take the time and effort to maximize as much as possible or do you just haul it all up in one load and hope to make it up by hauling more loads?

Hello Mick.

I hear what youre saying, cleaning scrap can be a real pain in the arse.

We dont personally clean anything unless its a large clean able load like stainless or HMS steel.

You should figure even with 100 pounds of dirty copper...with solder on it. Its only a .10 maybe .20 cent difference in price. So for every 100 pounds of copper you clean, you can about $10. So for the amount work it actually takes to clean copper, its not really worth it...just bring it in dirty.

However metals like stainless steel is always worth it, its heavy and the difference in price is large. For every 100 pounds of stainless you clean, youll probably make between 50-100 dollars extra.

So it all depends on how big the load is, and what youll actually gain from cleaning the metal. In the end, depending on how you look at it, its all about how much work you have to do to make the money.

Thanks for the reply, Addam. So, would you cut the deck from a lawn mower for the aluminum? Or just let it go with the rest as light iron (.38/lb vs .05/lb). The motor, too would be about .08/lb. How about cutting the screws, etc from an aluminum screens (.12/lb for irony alum vs .51/lb for extrusion)?

I always look at stripping at each individual thing and the current prices. If it is easy enough to do I usually strip irony materials off of copper, brass and aluminum. But if it is going to take me 3 hours to strip something down that I am only going to get an extra $1-2 for its not worth it. Short wire I do not strip as it takes too much time. Gas grills are great. The tops and bottoms are cast aluminum and there are brass and aluminum fittings in them. Usually takes about 10-15 minutes to completely strip one down and I get between $10-15 for each grill. Then I throw the cart out by the curb for the iron scrappers. (I dont have a vehicle big enough to make Iron scrapping worth it.

If you don't sort you are loosing up to 45% of your earnings. Dude, that's about half, do the math. As Obama and Clinton says, it's simple arithmetic.

Today was our first scrap payday at the scrap yard. I did sort everything as I was working on breakdown of computers/electronics. I had large plastic bins marked for types and just threw everything where it was supposed to go. I didn't mind sorting because it helped me learn based on things I've read here on the forum about metal types. We only made two small mistakes which were easily put in the right pile by the yardman we worked with today which was to our advantage $$.

My husband and I are pretty happy with our first scrap payday, we brought home just a little over $270 for 411 lbs of scrap metal, aluminum, copper The recycle yard here in Las Vegas was very helpful and friendly especially with us being new at scrapping. We used SA Recycling over by Nellis AFB.

For me the sorting was an advantage as I could keep track of weights, learn about the metal types and try to maximize the payout for my small load.

Oh, and sent 130lbs to Ewasted at CFCS yesterday. I'm leaving Las Vegas to go back home on Monday for good, husband is Military and he's stationed here, deploying soon. So hopefully when I get back to WA I can started scrapping again I really do enjoy doing this.

i break down everything!! i look at scrap like a change jar yeah its only a few dollars at first but after 100+ trips to the scrapyard how many dollars have you missed out on as far as time goes nothing seems to take to long if you have the right tools even cleaning. i understand some people don't have the time this is just how i see it