Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recovered metals, and non-metallic materials are also recovered for recycling. Once collected, the materials are sorted into types – typically metal scrap will be crushed, shredded, and sorted using mechanical processes. Metal recycling, especially of structural steel, ships, used manufactured goods, such as vehicles and white goods, is an industrial activity with complex networks of wrecking yards, sorting facilities, and recycling plants. The industry includes both formal organizations and a wide range of informal roles such as waste pickers who help sorting through scrap.
Processing
Scrap metal originates both in business and residential environments. Typically a "scrapper" will advertise their services to conveniently remove scrap metal for people who don't need it. Scrap is often taken to a wrecking yard (also known as a scrapyard, junkyard, or breaker's yard), where it is processed for later melting into new products. A wrecking yard, depending on its location, may allow customers to browse their lot and purchase items before they are sent to the smelters, although many scrap yards that deal in large quantities of scrap usually do not, often selling entire units such as engines or machinery by weight with no regard to their functional status. Customers are typically required to supply all of their own tools and labor to extract parts, and some scrapyards may first require waiving liability for personal injury before entering. Many scrapyards also sell bulk metals (stainless steel, etc.) by weight, often at prices substantially below the retail purchasing costs of similar pieces. A scrap metal shredder is often used to recycle items containing a variety of other materials in combination with steel. Examples are automobiles and white goods such as refrigerators, stoves, clothes washers, etc. These items are labor-intensive to manually sort things like plastic, copper, aluminum, and brass. By shredding it into relatively small pieces, the steel can easily be separated out magnetically. The non-ferrous waste stream requires other techniques to sort. In contrast to wrecking yards, scrapyards typically sell everything by weight, instead of by item. To the scrapyard, the primary value of the scrap is what the smelter will give them for it, rather than the value of whatever shape the metal may be in. An auto wrecker, on the other hand, would price exactly the same scrap based on what the item does, regardless of what it weighs. Typically, if a wrecker cannot sell something above the value of the metal in it, they would then take it to the scrapyard and sell it by weight. Equipment containing parts of various metals can often be purchased at a price below that of either of the metals, due to saving the scrapyard the labor of separating the metals before shipping them to be recycled.
Thieves sometimes sell stolen items to scrapyards. Copper pipes and wiring, bronze monuments and aluminium siding have all been targets of metal theft, with the number of thefts increasing as prices rise. Manhole covers have also been stolen. In the 1970s, the term "newsjacking" was coined to describe the theft of newspapers for sale to scrap dealers. The UK Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 further regulated the sale/purchase of scrap metal by obligating metal dealers ensure vendors provide proof of I-D for traceability purposes, usually though not exclusively vehicle driver's registration details. Payment in cash also ceased.
Resources
Scrap prices may vary markedly over time and in different locations. Prices are often negotiated between buyers and sellers directly or indirectly over the Internet. Prices displayed as the market prices are not the prices that recyclers will see at the scrap yards. Other prices are ranges or older and not updated frequently. Some scrap websites have updated scrap prices. In the US, scrap prices are reported in a handful of publications, including American Metal Market, based on confirmed sales as well as reference sites such as Scrap Metal Prices and Auctions. Non-US domiciled publications, such as The Steel Index, also report on the US scrap price, which has become increasingly important to global export markets. Scrap yards directories are also used by recyclers to find facilities in the US and Canada, allowing users to get in contact with yards. With resources online for recyclers to look at for scrapping tips, like websites, blogs, and search engines, scrapping is often referred to as a hand and labor-intensive job. Taking apart and separating metals is important to making more money on scrap, tips like using a magnet to determine ferrous and non-ferrous materials can help recyclers make more money on their metal recycling. When a magnet sticks to the metal, it will be a ferrous material, like steel or iron. This is usually a less expensive item that is recycled but usually is recycled in larger quantities of thousands of pounds. Non-ferrous metals like copper, aluminum, and brass do not stick to a magnet. Some cheaper grades of stainless steel are magnetic, other grades are not. These items are higher priced commodities for metal recycling and are important to separate when recycling them. The prices of non-ferrous metals also tend to fluctuate more than ferrous metals so it is important for recyclers to pay attention to these sources and the overall markets.
Urban mining
This term is used to describe the recovery of "dormant" materials that once served a purpose in society but have become disused since. For example, large amounts of metal are buried underground as part of the provision of basic services including telecoms. Infrastructure, buildings and equipment stored or lying dormant in this way accounted for 28% of Sweden's copper use in 2021. In the same period, one sixth of the cables installed in Sweden's telecoms came from harvesting via urban mining. In particular this involved copper, aluminium, iron and steel. Figures for this are issued by SGU, a Swedish government body responsible for geological survey of bedrock, soil and groundwater.
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