Scrap Metal: Ways to make money from trash

My house was built in the 1920s, and during one of it's many remodels before we purchased it the house had been covered in aluminum siding. We tore it all off, loaded it in my F-150, and we drove it to the local metal recycling center. It was not our local city recycling, but a place dedicated to scrap metal. I won't make up a number since I honestly don't remember what we got for the load, but it was enough that we were able to afford new vinyl siding without covering the entire cost our of pocket.

Many of our friend's reactions were priceless - "Omg, you went to the metal scrapping place? Isn't that for poor people with carts full of cans?"

There is no shame in recycling, especially not when they are willing to pay you for it. I bet many of you are reading this with some sort of aluminum can by your side. A standard 12 oz. empty coke can here in the USA weights 15 grams, or 1/2 oz.

32 empty coke cans weighs 1 pound. 1 pound of scrap aluminum in my area is going for around 75 cents / pound at the time this article was written. Metal prices do fluctuate, and I use www.kitco.com to check spot prices for all metals.

Many people squash their cans to keep their size small, but many metal recycling centers will not pay for cans that have been crushed - too many cheaters snuck in lead fishing weights to try to trick them. Still, a standard garbage bad can hold 2+ pounds of aluminum cans easily.

While I highly recommend you cut back your consumption of sugary drinks, if you have the cans then I would make use of them instead of letting your cities recycling program (if you have one) make money of your aluminum.

Recycling centers also accept iron, steel, nickel, copper... Let's talk about copper real quick. I'm an electrician, and I can tell you from first hand experience what happens when you cut wires without knowing what you are doing. I went into a customer's rental house and we did a re-wire... because someone climbed in the attic and cut out a good number of the wires. I estimate the small amount of copper he got for his dangerous game was around $5, and cost the homeowner hundreds of dollars. Not to mention that electricity is not a joke, it only takes a few amps travelling across your hearts before your heart stops.

Another couple notes on scrapping metal:

1.) DO NOT go onto someone else's property and take metal without knocking on the door and asking first. Especially not in my neck of the woods - you see it as an old steel urinal, they see it as lawn art.

2.) DO NOT take apart electronics if you do not know what a capacitor is. If you do not know what a capacitor is, go to YouTube and type in "capacitor discharge" before you kill yourself.

3.) WEAR GLOVES - Tetanus and other infections are no fun.

4.) Lift with your legs, not your back - some of that crap is heavy.

5.) Washers and dryers, refrigerators, microwaves - you can make money off these, but you need to have some knowledge of which parts to save, a place to take them apart / store them, and who you can sell the pieces to. You can take them to the scrapyard as is, but you will get less money.

6.) Re-read rule #1, here in the south we own shotguns.

I don't tell joes about metal... they're too iron-ic...

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