How clean do you get your aluminum?

My yard doesn't want any magnetic attachments. Paint and plastic is okay. I am guessing plastic separates in the shredder, whereas a screw might not.

They actually check. No idea why yours doesn't.

Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

My yard doesn't want any magnetic attachments. Paint and plastic is okay. I am guessing plastic separates in the shredder, whereas a screw might not.

They actually check. No idea why yours doesn't.

And the paint incinerates off.

Mine doesn't normally check anymore if I have enough to go on the drive on scale.... He can see fairly well into the truck from the window and doesn't normally come outside to look at what he can't see... I have been going there for almost 20 years, so he has enough trust in me that I am not ripping him off.... if I have a smaller amount, such as a couple garbage cans worth, we just toss it on the small scale and they don't really look too closely at it either....Basicaly they know I will be back a week later anyway and they know I won't do anything that will bite me in the ass.

I do try to get mine as clean as I can, but I will admit some aluminum does have the odd bolt or screw in it.... if it's not excessive, they don't get bent out of shape about it

Originally Posted by Instaed

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We do this, but both scrap yards we go to don't look at our work. They just pay .50c per lb and move on.

Are we wasting our time? Why don't they check it?

What is the TOP price they are paying for Clean AL ?
The 50cents price you are getting isn't that far out of range from what they are paying here for those type of items.
Unclean, it is only worth an avg.25 cents.
Unless you have a high poundage, I don't know if I would waste my time for the difference.
If it was like the difference in stripping copper wire, wherein I can get about $1.50-$2.00 more per lb, THEN I certainly will spend the extra time.
Good Luck !!

Originally Posted by Scrap man

My yard just takes it as is and gives $.55 no matter what. But another yard in my area pays much less for dirty aluminum. I had 87 lbs of gutters with cardboard stuck to them and I only got $8 and change.

WOW, talk about NOT worth it!
Question though, the cardboard couldn't come off easily enough ?

My yard is usually about 60 cents for clean, but they group ALL kinds of AL together.. cast, sheet, extrusion etc. I usually take in 75-100 lbs each trip, once a week.