Fresh Ideas on Where to Find Scrap Metal

I've been doing scrap recycling for a long time, and I'm all out of good ideas on where to find scrap metal. It's slim pickins around here.



Where are you guys getting your scrap?

Go to some of the auto places and brake places to see if they have engines or car parts throwing them away or something.

Around where I am at, there are quite a few metal fabrication shops, one where I worked for 20 years and then got laid off because of the economy. But, I have asked other metal shops ( smaller shops, better chance they will let you go through the dumpster), and I have come out of a few of those deals with heavy duty cardboard boxes **** near full of aluminum slugs from a CNC punch press, they had to load it with a forllift, and all it cost me was a fishing trip on my boat for the company owner and a couple of his buddies. Now this was a few years back and the boat is gone, but the idea remains that if you knock on the door of a manufacturing plant that is small enough where they really can't afford a dumpster service to pick up and maintain for them a dumpster for the scraps.
it is definetly worth a shot and if you get your foot in some of the stuff you'll come up with is like Christmas morning.
happy hunting!!

I have posted a free haul off service in craigslist, and have gotten several calls from there, my latest being last Friday, in which I got enough to pretty much fill a 16ft flatbed trailer.

Here in Springfield,Ohio, Ive tried posting on craigslist but always get flagged off, I think its the Greed of fellow scrappers here...I really think SCRAPPERS should hang together in some cases, but to never disregard others in the same line...just my thought tho...I would never move in on another mans way of living and think some of the idiots here in Springfield need to be a little more thoughtful

Originally Posted by junkdude1959

Here in Springfield,Ohio, Ive tried posting on craigslist but always get flagged off, I think its the Greed of fellow scrappers here...I really think SCRAPPERS should hang together in some cases, but to never disregard others in the same line...just my thought tho...I would never move in on another mans way of living and think some of the idiots here in Springfield need to be a little more thoughtful

What part of craigslist do you post? If you post in the free section, it will get flagged. I post in the labor/move part of the services section. I never get flagged there, and have gotten a few calls from it.

A untapped resource in most areas are the local shooting ranges. Try going to a shooting range and picking up the discharged brass shells; near me they fetch contaminated brass! It may be worth while if people shoot all the time at your nearest range without picking up their shells. Maybe you could work it into your route.

man , you were reading my mind on that one. I called my local shooting range and just from shooting there myself I have seen thousands of rounds (large caliber stuff....223, 7.62x39, 308, etc, etc, just laying around in the ground, So I called and said i was a shooter up there and was wondering if they, or anyone was collectikng the used brass, and to my surprise they said yes they were now picking up all the thousands upon thousands of casings embedded in the dirt at the firing line. Now the sense I got was that I must have been the umpteenth caller on the bras casings subject because I know a guy who shoots up there almost daily and he said that they are picking up only the really good reloadable rounds like the .338, .308, and on. So, I just think it was to pacify my interest in the cartridge situation, so I guess that avenue is shot (no pun intended)

i got a problem that i just cant solve!! i get metal shavings everyday and its a pain! there are these wads of strug together pieces and they are just in the way. what i want is under it. i want the actual shavings and shaving dust. thats where the weight is. i fill up a 4 regular size trash cans and make around $65.00. can someone please help me. i just bought a cordless saw saw.......cant wait to try it

i live in the philly suburbs on the main line and have about 25 colleges within a 20 minute drive of me. most are closer than that though, and the stuff they toss is ridiculous. i dont scrap professionally but i make "artistic" items out of the copper i glean from crap people throw away so im constantly noticing the excessive waste around the end of semesters. im beginning to wonder if my time would be better spent just scrapping the copper im gleaning instead of pouring hundreds of hours into a wireframe elephant or something just as esoteric...

Another idea maybe be aluminum from the local baseball sports complex. My son plays little league and we were at the park late one evening cleaning up. The maintence guy said "hey do you want these bats, they have been hear for years" so of course I took all 27 of them. Most of them were junk, but I believe they are all aluminum. I have yet to take them in. But you may call these places and see if they want to get rid of there left/forgotton bats. Just a thought.

i checked out a dumpster behind a pawn shop today and found a huge box full of extension cords and a couple of other scrap items large and small

Construction sites huge $$$$. Just today i racked up more then 10,000lbs can't wait to turn it in!!!

Gotta be careful with construction refuse. A few scrap yards around here wont even take it due to the high theft rate

I check out just one complex last night. Found 2 monitors and a about a 10' heavy duty extention cord. Plus two sweepers. I know the monitors and sweeper will take some work, but found money is found money. Also took in some copper, sheet aluminum, and aluminum cans. $161.00

Storage Companies
I've contacted probably 30 or so storage places and have got a response from approximately half of them wanting me to come get stuff. Mainly its customers who haven't paid their bill and when they had an auction and didn't sell the storage units at auction they just want to get rid of the items. Just contact the manager at the facility and see what they say. A lot of them don't have dumpsters on site so the customers cant use them. So to save them money on dumpsters and keep recyclable stuff out of landfills call them.

The other night I was driving around looking for a couple of new spots and decided to drive through a trailor park. They had 3 large dumpsters. But what I notice the most was the number of air conditioners sitting outside in the snow, on the ground not in there windows, at these places . I mean more then one trailor had multi units. Maybe I should stop and ask if there junk and if they would want me to get them off there hands.