New to scrapping. Trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

**Mechanic688** · 05-03-2012, 08:33 PM

BTW I would like the definition of "shred" also. I suspect it is small ferrous stuff (since you all seem to have a shred bucket). Where does the shred go? Just dump the bucket on the ferrous pile or do you take it to the nonferrous scale? I hate the thought of just dumping who-knows-what sharp metal (nails, screws and such) on the ground, which is what you do with the ferrous stuff at the two yards I go to.

My shred pile has computer carcasses in it also misc metal from printers and any other smaller things I break down. My bucket of screws, bolts, springs, clips, and any other bits of metal I usually dump into an empty paint bucket or an appliance or I find some kind of bucket or container in the shred pile to dump it into.

**mrsamsonite** · 05-03-2012, 10:03 PM

Hello Mechanic 688,

Im some what new to recycling (about 6 month). You seem like you have been doing this for awhile and might know how to answer this question.

I pay a working of mine $10 an hour to break stuff down. We are trying to figure out what is worth to break down and what isnt. Are there certain things that you break down all of the way and other things that you just move along? We have been going after the non-ferrous stuff and cleaning it up to get full price. As far as electronics we break down monitors, but, other stuff I am thinking of not breaking down like printers vacuums. I will probably just do partial break downs for some of the stuff. For example, when doing printers I will take out the ink cartridges, and cut the cables off and then just recycle the rest as e-waste at .05 lb. For vacuum I will just cut off the cord and the recycle the rest as e-wast .05 lb.

Any advice that I could get would be appreciated. Thanks!