Recycling Metal. 29 Ways to make money around the house.
Recycling has been around for long time but rarely do I see people using it to their advantage. There is a lot you can do to get some of you original investments back. Throwing away anything metal is literally throwing away money. Getting money for your metal is a little time consuming and requires a little extra space, but we all have a few minutes a day extra to bring in a little extra income. Read along with the different metals you may have around your house, a few ways to store them, and how your payout could be even bigger.
Below are some items that you most likely would find in your house. Some different types of metal are kept separate, and some can all be thrown together. I will list each item and how to collect them to get the most out of each metal.
ALUMINUM
There are a few different types of aluminum, here are a couple examples below.
1. Aluminum Cans – A lot of states have a CRV (Cash Redemption Value) and if you paid the CRV, go get your deposit back. If you don’t pay a CRV or deposit when you buy aluminum cans, then save them and take them to the scrap yard. It’s amazing how fast you can fill a 55 gallon drum.
Info from iScrap.com based on the prices from General Alloys* in Washington, PA. Aluminum Cans $0.40 / lb 2 years ago.
*Note, Aluminum cans stay separate. All aluminum listed below can be combined together.
2. Cat Food Cans – The ones I get personally for my cat Mittens they are all aluminum. I simply give the can a quick rinse and throw them all into a 5 gallon bucket. https://www.tiktok.com/@mightymittens
3. Aluminum Foil – Food grade aluminum is something I’m always using, to cook, bake, grill, store food and countless projects with the kids. When your done, ball it up, throw it in your bucket and watch it fill up.
4. Hershey Kiss foil. Hershey’s KISSES chocolates are wrapped in squares of lightweight aluminum foil.. Think of all the kisses you’ve eaten in your lifetime, how much money could of you gotten back? lol. Its almost like getting rewarded for eating chocolate..
CLEAN STEEL
Clean steel is steel that has nothing else on it. No plastic, paint, or other metals mixed with it. All these can be put together in one container.
5. Pen Springs (on the inside of the pen). At the end of the day, it all ads up.
6. Paper Clips. New ones, bent ones, even the one you tried to tried to turn into the shape of an animal.
7. Chinese food box metal handle that you remove before putting it in the microwave.
8. Nails. Get the nails out of old wood, they are typically steel and over time could add up to a lot of weight.
9. Staples, yes even staples if you want to get into the nitty gritty of recycling, you can even remove staples before throwing out magazines, old papers in the filing cabnet from 1995 or the hundred of papers your kids bring home from school. At the end of the day, month, year, it all adds up.
10. Nuts, bolts and screws. You know when your putting together a bookcase from Ikea and you have extra screws? Yeah, you probably missed something (it’s ok, we all do). Recycle them Instead of throwing them out!
TIN STEEL
Clean Tin Steel is steel that has nothing else on it. No plastic, paint, or other metals mixed with it. Here are some examples below.
11. Mason Jar Lids, the outer ring. This has no plastic on it and should be a clean tin.
The inner circle has plastic on it and would be considered scrap metal.
12. Beer and soda bottle caps. There were a time some bottle caps were made out of aluminum, but the majority of them made today are a steel. If you are not sure, put a magnet to it and see if it sticks.
13. Biscuit & cerssant tube ends – The ends of the tubes are a steel, break them off and throw them in the tin steel bucket.
14. Canned Food & Dog food cans – In almost all cases canned food is made out of steel or tin. To determine that, simply a magnet to it. If it stick, it’s steel. If it doesn’t, it’s probably aluminum. When your done with your cans, give them a quick rinse and watch them pile up. I use a 55 gallon drum to store my empty tin cans and the other tin listed above.
SCRAP METAL
Scrap metal is any metal with plastic on it, paint, or a combination of metals mixed together that can’t be separated.
15. Old Pots, Pans & Cooking Utensils. Because of the plastic handles typically on pots and pans, they are scrap metal.
16. Metal Lids, Pasta jar lids, Pickle jar lids and the inside circle on a mason jar lid.
17. Metal Twist Ties, yeah like the ones on a loaf of bread or hotdog buns. They usually have paper or plastic on them, so they would be considered scrap metal.
18. Spray paint cans. Make sure they are empty!
19. Cooking spray cans. Make sure they are empty!
20. Air freshener spray cans. Make sure they are empty!
21. Hairspray cans. Make sure they are empty!
22. BodySpray cans. Make sure they are empty!
23. Empty propane canisters. The green ones you use camping for lights, heaters and small BBQ’s. Yeah, those ones. I believe you can even recycle the larger propane tanks for large grills but I haven’t ever tried. Make sure they are empty!
24. Welding Dust. If your a welder, when you sweep up at the end of the day (or like me, once a month) almost all that metal dust, mig wire clippings, metal shavings and random bits of cutoff metal pieces can all be throw into a bucket, you’d be surprised how quick it fills up. I Throw it in with the scrap metal.
25. Kitchen cabinet and dresser handles and hinges. Before throwing out an old dresser or cabinet, remove the metal hardware. If they are in good condition you can attempt to sell them online on a various different apps, a few examples are FaceBook Marketplace, CraigsList, LetGo or OfferUp. If they are beat up, take em to the scrap yard.
26. Empty paint cans. The paint cans must be completely empty and dry. Leave the lid off so the scrap yard can see that its empty.
OTHER
27. Vehicle Batteries. Most metal scrap yards accept car batteries but not all of them. Before you save them, call your local scrap yard and see if they accept them first.
28. Wire. (Insulated Wire) Before I throw away any appliance I cut off the power cord to recycle. I also recycle any old broken iPhone charger, Christmas lights, damaged extension cords or anything like that. Throw it in the bucket, it all adds up. Keep these separate as you will get more money for wire.
Info from iScrap.com based on the prices from General Alloys* in Washington, PA Computer Wire $0.20 / lb 2 years ago.
29. Vehicle Repairs. Almost anything you repair on a vehicle.. brake pads, rotors, spark plugs, ect. Most of the items when working on a car are in many different metal categories, a lot of them would be considered scrap metal. When the metal has anything else on it like plastic or ceramic, or multiple metals combined chances are its scrap metal. Another example are rotors are a solid piece of steel and typically falls in a different category then scrap metal. Set those aside and take those in by themselves.
THE SYSTEM
The system I use for recycling Metal is always a work in progress, but so far I got a pretty good system down. I have three plastic 55 gallon containers, I use one for aluminum pieces, one for aluminum cans and the other for scrap metal.
Then I have about seven 5 gallon buckets that each is used for a different metal, cooper, Insulated wire, brass, bottle caps, aluminum foil (from cooking and cat food), aluminum cans and one for steel. I only use 5 gallon buckets for steel because a 55 gallon drum full of steel would be very hard to move. When each bucket or drum fills up, I take it in to get recycled and collect some money. I end up going about once a month and make anywhere from $20-$200 depending on what I take to be recycled. I typically only go to the metal scrap yard when I already have to go that direction for another reason like also needing to go to Home Depot, Welding supply store, harbor freight and tools, ect. That way I’m not wasting gas on a single trip. After all we’re trying to save money and make the most we can from all our hard work of organizing and recycling.
When I lived in an apartment I only had enough room to have 2 small recycle bins, one was used for aluminum cans and the other bin was used for all other metals. I would simply combine all the other metals into one and take it in as just scrap metal. I worked with the room I had.
Whatever system of saving and collecting different type of metals you choose to use is still better then throwing away money. It’s not winning the lottery when you cash in a bag of cans, but it could be the difference of a half a tank of gas or a full tank. In these crazy time this could make a small difference just to help get buy in a time of need.
I love making metal art, scrap metal creations, whatever you want to call it, and a few friends are always in support of dropping off metal, calling me to come pick some up or always sharing ideas. So thank you to the guys who help me along my adventure.
Tim W.
Mike R.
Mark E.
James (Jim) E.
*General Alloys is a metal recycling center in Washington, PA. They accept a large variety of metals and the office customer service is always great and the staff out in the yard are always helpful. I ask a lot of question whenever I’m there and they always help me out. They help me unload my metals. I am super happy with them! This shout-out is not paid, and actually they don’t even know I’m mentioning them in this article.
General Alloys
135 West Wylie Avenue
Washington, PA 15301
http://www.generalalloys.com
Please be respectful of your scrap metal workers and don’t bring in 2 balls of foil and 17 paperclips to be recycled weekly, thats annoying. Note that the scrap yard in my area will only accept a minimum of 100 pounds of scrap metal at a time.
Download the iScrap App or visit the website https://iscrapapp.com
Thanks for reading and I hope this article was helpful.