An excavator at a metal recycling yard in Dallas, TX

Do’s and Don’ts of Scrap Metal Recycling

Scrap metal recycling is an easy way for a community member or business owner to help out the environment and make some decent money on the side.

However, the process isn’t as clean cut as just dumping your scrap at a local recycling facility. Before you schedule a drop-off at a scrap metal recycling yard near you, make sure that your preparation follows these standard do’s and don’ts.

The Do’s of Scrap Recycling

Fortunately, the prep work for successful recycling isn’t very daunting. Here are some of the best things you can do to make the process of getting paid for your scrap quick and lucrative.

Separate Your Scraps

Different metals yield different reward amounts. So, make you and your recycler’s lives easier by sorting out your metals by type for faster processing. We know that this may take some time on your part, but as a recycling company that loves to pay top-dollar on scrap metals, we’d hate to see our clients get short-changed because they failed to properly separate their valuable metals.

Get to Know Your Local Recyclers

Not every recycling company is going to offer the highest prices for your metals, and not every company is going to offer a quality experience. 

Before you make the choice to sell your ferrous and non-ferrous metals, take some time to understand the business you’re working with. 

You want three key qualities from a scrap metal recycling company:

  1. Excellent security
  2. Prices offered at the highest market value
  3. Equipment that produces accurate weights

Action Metals Recyclers offers all three of these qualities and more to our customers and are ready to give you service that makes us your go-to metal recycling company whenever you need to unload your scraps.

Clean Your Scrap

Many metals come with screws and attachments that are made from other metals. “Cleaning” your scrap is simply stripping down your metals into individual pieces of specific metals

Not only does this contribute to our earlier separation tip, but some of the attached metals could fetch a higher price point when sold with its own type of metal rather than being mixed in with lower yielding materials.

The Don’ts to Always Stay Away From

Whenever you want to make some money off of your metals, make sure to avoid these costly and sometimes illegal tricks.

Don’t Collect Illegal Scrap

While a person should never break the law and steal metal scraps like copper and steel from properties and construction sites, some areas don’t even allow curbside scrap collection.

Before you pick up that piece of metal your neighbors tossed to the curb for collection, make sure that your county doesn’t frown on the practice, resulting in your money earned going towards a large fine.

Don’t Try to Mix Your Metals

We’ve already shown that mixing metals can result in lower sales effects, which ultimately harms your efforts. 

However, if you are caught mixing metals with the intent of making more money off of low-quality scraps, you’ll promptly be turned away and placed on notice with other recycling companies throughout the area.

Make the Right Recycling Choice With Action Metals Recyclers

If you have any questions about recycling scrap metals, Action Metals Recyclers is ready to help you out. Contact us today to learn more about our recycling services and how we can help you make money off of ferrous and non-ferrous metals lying around your property.