How to Care For the Soil

Probably you have an old car that no longer runs lying in the middle of your yard, occupying valuable space. Or you have plenty of offcuts stacked in the corner of your garage or garden, leftover from your recent home renovation. In either case, you can earn a nice amount from the scrap metal in your possession. However, the scrap metal business isn't as easy as you might think. You can easily get ripped off, especially if you are inexperienced in the recycling industry.

Here are three tips to help enlighten you as a scrap sellers on the various ways you can get a good value for your scrap metal.

1. Clean off any contaminants or attachments from the scrap metal

To get the best price possible, clean off any contaminants from the scrap. Plus, waste oils and fluids that stain the scrap material also pose a threat to the environment. Make sure there are no additional attachments such as rubber or plastic on the material you intend to cash in. Any metal that is free of any attachment means that the weight on the scale is its actual weight. On the other hand, the extra attachments and contaminants would cause the metal to be downgraded because the final weight isn't that of the metal alone.

Often, the labour savings are passed to customers if the recycling facility receives metals free of contaminants. However, if the task of cleaning is left to the recycling plant, then they are unlikely to propose a competitive offer despite the good quality of your scrap.

2. Sort out your materials

You do not want to mix all your metals when you visit the recycling facility. This is because you are likely to be paid only for the price of the least valuable material in your container. For instance, if your brass and aluminium metals are all mixed up in one container, you may be paid based on the value of the aluminium, which would be a rip-off because brass is a lot more valuable.

3. Hidden scales

If you're not allowed to see your objects being weighed, this could be a potential red flag. Are you aware that the actual weight can be under-reported? This is one of the tricks in the scrap metal business. You must be allowed to see the weighing scale as well as the readout to make sure you get a good deal for the actual weight of your materials. Request to see the certification of the weighing scale.