ReUse- Make Money: 5 Household Places to Find Metal Scrap

Are you in need of extra cash? Did you know that selling metal scrap is a great way to earn quick bucks? Scrap yard dealers are always looking for customers with metal scrap and you can rake in a decent amount of money in this field, because prices for scrap metal are growing steadily with each passing day. Where do you find scrap metal? It’s right in front of your eyes! Still confused? For starters, look around your house and you’ll find metal hidden in practically every nook and cranny. Here are some places around the house which can yield valuable scrap metal.

Common Household Places you can find Metal Scrap

Kitchen

The most commonly used items in your kitchen – your old pots and pans, are an excellent source of metal scrap! The refrigerator and microwave also contain a fair amount of metal, especially copper. Even the silverware made of stainless steel can fall under scrap metal. Used beverage cans or UBCs are made of aluminum and can be traded in at a recycling center. Aluminum foil used as cookie sheets or for packaging food is a good source of scrap. The kitchen stove also contains metal parts and can be recycled if not in use.

Living Room/Bedroom

The television is a good source of scrap metal. The capacitor and the copper yoke contain decent quantities of copper and will fetch a good bargain. Entry doors and lamp bases made of steel or aluminum can also be scrapped at a recycling center. Air conditioners are also a good source of copper. Window sidings, frames, and gutters are usually made of aluminum and can be sold as scrap.

Bathroom/Laundry

Almost all electronic items are sources of scrap metal, and washers and dryers are no different. Bathroom fixtures and plumbing pipes are good sources of copper. Shelves, if made of metal, can also yield a good price at the junkyard.

Garden/Patio

The patio furniture made of wrought iron that you intended to discard all these days is actually metal scrap! Get it out of the way by hauling it to a recycling center! And that’s not all. Lawn mowers, swing sets, iron railings, and weed eaters can also be sold to a junkyard if you no longer have use for them.

Attic

Get up there and take a good look at the items that you have stashed away and have long since forgotten. Old chairs, metal frames, rusty old metal tables, worn-out lamp shades, shelves, cabinets, broken down appliances, Christmas ornaments, may all contain metal to some extent.

Garage

Do you have old power tools that have gone rusty with time? Pack them off to be taken to the recycling center. Bikes which your kids have far outgrown but still adorn a corner of the garage will also fetch a decent price. Musical instruments that your teenager doesn’t use any longer contain brass that the scrap dealer will only be too happy to receive! And then we come to the biggest source of scrap metal in your garage – your car! If your car is nearing its end, you can make a profit for yourself by selling its parts to a scrap yard. The radiator, nuts, bolts, screws, car batteries, compressors, transmission, carburetor, rims, and plenty of other auto parts will have you smiling all the way to the bank if you sell them to a recycling center!

Now that you know that your house is practically a treasure trove for scrap metal, it’s time to collect all that and haul it to the scrap recycling center. But before you do, here are a few tips you should keep in mind which will get you a good deal when you sell your stuff.

•  Find out all that you can about the local recycling facilities in town. Almost every town has a scrap yard which is usually situated on the outskirts of your town. For instance, SIMS has scrap yards located in several locations across the nation, from Frankfort in NY to Richmond in CA. Contact the junkyards in your area beforehand and find out what prices they’re offering. Talk to them and strike a good deal before you visit them with your belongings.
•  Scrap metal prices are subject to change every day. A good guide would be to look up the prices on www.metalprices.com for the kind of metal scrap that you wish to sell, so you’ll know that the dealer isn’t fleecing you outright. Copper usually fetches the most price, while aluminum and steel aren’t as lucky!
•  It’s important to sort your metals before you take them to the scrap yard. Steel can be separated using a magnet. Copper is reddish brown in color and aluminum a silvery-white. Remove all impurities from the scrap – plastic, glass, or cloth, basically anything that’s not metal. Segregate different metals into different boxes. This way you’ll get more money for your metal, if it has been cleaned and sorted properly.
•  Wait till you accumulate a sizeable amount of scrap. The more you have, the more it pays. The rule of thumb for scrap metal is that dealers will pay more for a bigger bulk of scrap.
•  Carry a photo ID with you. Scrap yards always ask for identification from sellers because of the recent rise in metal theft. It ensures that valuable scrap doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

Recycling and reusing metals is one way to sustain the earth’s precious resources. How? When you recycle, you reprocess and use the same material again, thereby not drilling for metal in the earth’s crust. Recycling metal won’t make you rich overnight, but who wouldn’t like to earn some extra money just by selling old items hidden away in their home!? It’s a win-win situation – help keep the earth safe from metals ending up in landfills and adding to pollution and get paid for it!

AUTHOR BIO:

Anne Staley is an environmentalist who likes to express her thoughts and beliefs through the written word. Her motto in life is to better the lives of others through the knowledge she shares. She loves nature and urges her readers to go green. She shares her thoughts through creative writing and blogs.