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If you asked a movie director, a metal scrap yard is a desolate place filled with old cars, junk, and mean dogs. But in reality, these places serve a much higher purpose.

A metal scrap yard is a place that lets you not only make a bit of extra cash, but also helps with the recycle economy and saves a ton of energy and raw natural resources. Here are a couple of things you may not know about metal scrap yards.

What is a Metal Scrap Yard?

A metal scrap yard is simply a place to bring your scrap metal to be recycled. Many yards, like Community Recycling in Plano, will pay you for your scrap metal. 

After you drop your scrap metal off, it is sorted and processed for recycling in many ways. Many yards have large magnets that are able to sort between ferrous and non-ferrous metals. 

To process the metal, some yards have large metal shredders to make the metal easier to handle and compress. Many metal scrap yards have large presses that squeeze scrap metal into large uniform blocks to make it easier to handle and store. The scrap is then either sent off or melted on site with giant furnaces. These furnaces melt and purify the metal which are then made into giant blocks or sheets for use by factories.

How much metal ends up in Landfills?

Not all waste metal is sent to recycling plants like Community Recycling. As a matter of fact, there are enough cans thrown into American landfills every year to rebuild all commercial airplanes 4 times. Also, Americans toss 2 billion razor blades into the trash every year.

How much is all this scrap metal worth?

A new trend called landfill mining is taking hold. In southern Maine, a four year landfill mining project found $7.42 million worth of metals. We are throwing literal fortunes into landfills every year.

How much money can I make at a Metal Scrap Yard?

Prices at metal scrap yards vary daily with market prices, but a general estimate is about $200/ton of ferrous metal, $0.50/lb of aluminum, and over $2.00/lb of #1 bare copper.

The best way to find out how much you can make is to call us at Community Recycling for today’s prices. Call today at (972) 423-3824.