Sending metal to a landfill can allow toxic chemicals to leach into the environment and is also a waste of materials — recycled metals can be just as good as quality as the raw material, without the environmental cost. Many scrap metal dealers will pay for your metal scrap, but what kinds of items will they buy?
Radiators
Most metal radiators can be salvaged, whether they have come from your house or a car air conditioning unit.
When ocean-going vessels come to the end of their useful lives, they go through a process known as ship breaking. In fact, ship dismantling may be a more accurate term for the many processes that go on to salvage as much material from a vessel as it is taken apart piece by piece. Ship breaking goes on in many locations around the world and often requires a larger number of workers because ships frequently have to be taken apart by hand before their hulls are ultimately destroyed.
It is true that much of the Earth's copper ore remains in the ground waiting to be extracted. However, much of it is in hard to get to locations, and it is, when all is said and done, a finite resource which will run out eventually. Used in anything from electrical cabling to plumbing, copper is incredibly useful and should be recycled at every opportunity. Not only does this mean preserving the available resource but it also results in lowering overall energy consumption.
When you research aluminium prices to see how much your scrap is worth, you'll notice that dealers quote a range of prices rather than a fixed one. Why is this?
How Purity Affects the Price of Aluminium
When scrap or recycling dealers buy metals, they grade them by purity. If the scrap you want to sell is just made from aluminium, then it is known as pure or clean aluminium. If your scrap also contains other materials, then the metal is no longer 100% pure.
