What does your yard accept in the shred pile?

I've been scraping for a while now, a lot of curb shopping and a few contracts. I've always tended to clean things like lawn chairs and furniture. Like remove all the not metal and just throw it out.

Ive been noticing some people at my local yard unloading things like full car seats, office cubicles, rims with tires still on them, artificial Christmas trees basically all kinds of things that don't really seem very high recovery.

I asked one of the attendants about it and he said something along the lines of its only 9 cents a pound whatever its just shred.



Since then I've scrapped full desks with heavy wood tops, sections of wood with plugs and small steel junction boxes on them, full bikes, suitcases. just anything with even just a little metal seems to be ok and I'm getting full weight on it.

Are all scrapyards this lenient on what goes in the shred pile?

I used to take the wheels off of lawn mower decks to scrap them when the price was $130/mt and I didnt know - now its $170/mt and thats some serious cash.

I saw a guy unloading a pile of ikea furniture all still in the cardboard boxes (I guess it was metal?!) and the guy just waved him through.

Thats true Vic, I've worked many times cleaning everything to bare metal, and then wait in lines surrounded by loads that are filled with bicycle tires, seat cushions, plastics, etc etc, who get the same "clean" price as you ; )

Mine isn't that lenient either...They just told me a few weeks ago that they didn't accept printers any more without breaking them down and removing plastic. This is an "e-waste" facility to boot. Then....my other yard which used to accept everything...won't accept them anymore either.

Fact is, new printers ain't got hardly any metal in em, plus, they've probably been brought in with ink cartridges too.

Originally Posted by corycouch

On Monday I seen a load of school desks, the kind with plastic chairs and wood tops.

haha, maybe they had a real screw with em

John, what yard are you using that takes keyboards? Are they paying shred price?

I have been at the shred pile many times and see things that i dont think should scrapped. Just like the OP said things where i could barely see any metal, but i still try to be as stringent as possible with what i throw into the shred pile. Sometimes ill be tearing something apart and will have a small piece of plastic with a steel bolt in the middle and i question should i throw this in the garbage or in the shred pile. I know throwing it away is throwing away money but i also dont want to be asked to not return to a yard because of trying to cheat them.

Leniency is a sign of a good yard in my book. The one I frequent overlooks alot. They made me throw off clumps of frozen sod the other day so I wouldn't lose them going down the highway (and they were weighed in with the shred). I've taken in wooden box wagons and a homemade wooden stand-up pickup camper (still on the pickup truck). I respond by throwing aluminum off my own loads of shred onto their aluminum pile and also let them mag some unprepared ferrous off my loads without weighing back across the scale to benefit from a higher price. You scratch my back; I scratch yours. !!

My yard will take cubicle walls, printers, vacuums, keyboards, desk with some wood, and much more. As long as there's approx 50% metal they will take. They are usually 20 ton less than the better paying yards but i find it worth it that i dont have prepare as much.

my yard takes clean mower decks as prepared/short steel, the motors go as dirty/irony aluminum, or the whole thing in the tin/shred pile.

sometimes they let me put something qestionable in my load because my loads are usually above their standard

Originally Posted by BurlyGuys

I sell those for 30-50 bucks each.

must sell fast, aren't they like $200 and up without battery or charger?