Non Ferrous Scrap Metal Prices

1. NON FERROUS SCRAP METAL PRICES You might be amazed to discover just what a scrap metal dealer will pay you for any of your scrap metal. Most scrap metal dealers will take any sort of metal, but they will give better prices for the more valuable metals. The most common metal type that ends up either in landfill dumped somewhere it shouldn’t, or preferably in a scrap metal dealer’s yard is what is called ferrous metal. This is anything made principally of iron or steel. In fact, steel is almost entirely iron with a mixture of other metals and carbon to make it tougher or more corrosion resistant. Non ferrous scrap metal prices tend to be higher than they are for ferrous metals, especially for valuable metals like gold and silver. Non ferrous metals are any sort of metal other than iron or steel. They include aluminum, zinc, lead, copper and its alloys, nickel, chromium, platinum, gold and silver. Very little gold, silver or platinum is usually sold to scrap metal dealers but that doesn’t mean that the other non ferrous metal scrap isn’t valuable. If you have either collected aluminum cans yourself or are collecting them on behalf of a business, school or other organization you will be pleasantly surprised by just how much you can get in return. Prices tend to be highest for copper and its main alloys which are brass and bronze, simply because naturally occurring copper ore is in shorter supply than other metal ores. Of all the non ferrous metals, aluminum is the most common, used for beer and soda cans, foil wrapping, as well as saucepans, construction materials like roofing, window and door frames, structural framework for vehicles as well as large amounts for high voltage electrical cables. It is much more energy efficient to recycle waste or unwanted aluminum rather than mine increasing amounts of alumina, which is the main ore of the metal. Extracting aluminum from its ore requires huge amounts of electricity and can be a major source of pollution. Better to take any aluminum you don’t want to a non ferrous metal recycling depot and exchange it for cash! Copper is used principally as electrical wiring because it is a very good electrical conductor. Smaller amounts of it find its way into decorative or structural materials and fixtures and fittings as the two main alloys, brass and bronze. Copper is also alloyed with nickel in coins worldwide. Copper and its alloys do not corrode easily, making it very useful as a recycling material because old copper pieces are still useful even when they have been left lying around for years.

2. Think of all those bronze cannons and copper cooking pots that are still surviving after centuries exposed to the elements! Zinc is rarely found by itself although large amounts are used as sacrificial anodes to protect other metals left in the water or outside in the rain. It is a common coating material on steel and is mixed with copper to form brass. Lead is used these days mostly in lead acid batteries. Batteries of this type rarely last for more than a couple of years and recycling the lead in them is the best way to dispose of them. Lead used to be used much more in the past in plumbing, gasoline additives and paint, but it was found to be toxic so use has been restricted. All in all, non ferrous recycling is an environmentally very sound industry and for those of you that have discovered that you are the reluctant owner of metal bits and piece you no longer want, it can earn you dollars, too.