Sell aluminum cans directly to a smelter?

Hello, new here.



Does anyone here sell directly to a smelter, specifically aluminum cans? If so, is there a minimum weight? Must they be "processed" in any way first? What is the differential in price between what a smelter pays and a recycling center pays? Thanks in advance.

we have a smelting company around here,,,they pay 12 cents to 20 cents per pound for aluminum cans

I got .65 here last week

That might be the only good thing about CA is the can prices $2.10

pop cans at the junk yards pay 60 to 65 cents per pound here........if you take them to the aluminum smelting place they pay 12 to 20 cents per pound depending on your quanity and if they are bailed or not...

Thanks for all the replies!

I sold cans last week got 50 cents ... I thought that was a little low

Originally Posted by unitsngold

That might be the only good thing about CA is the can prices $2.10

Not sure how good loaning the state of California $.05 to $.10 for each can you purchase and have to also pay sales tax on the deposit, then lug back the cans somewhere to get YOUR money back is!!!! But sure if you get them for free then it is real good!

I get the impression that the gradeo of ALI in Ali cans is specific to the cans.
The tabs and the cans are the same grade too.

So when you take the cans, they bail them and send the bails back to the original can manufacturer.
That way there's only one middleman and you get good prices.

If you send the cans to a foundry etc, they may have to test the moltem ali and add other metals to the mix to get it right.
That costs money.

I think its the same deal with cast ali. The foundry who casts the ali wants 'casting grade Ali' only.
I think that's why there's so many grades of Ali.
Domestic. Cast ali. Àli cans. Extrusion ali. Plus others....

The bestvway to get the best deal is, handle it once only!!!!!!
Pick up the can, shake yo make sure there's nothing in it. Squeeze the can so the sides touch and put it in whtever its going to be taken to tge scrap mtal dealers in.
Two notes here.
1 Guiness beer cans have a plastic ball inside them. Lke a tabletenis ball. It stops the beer from foaming so much.
2. Don't flaten the cans. Flattening is another process and adds to the time handling the cans. It dosn't save much space either. Plus , if you flatten the cans, when they bail the cans up, they don't stick together which is a real pain for the guys who deal with the cans.
By just squeezing the sides in, it saves the space and makes the cans 'lock together' into one big chunk when they bail it up.

We get special prices for Ali cans. There's a smelter who melts them down to billets and they go to the can manufacturer in one go.

Stevea41 -- a great question that I've also asked on another forum and never got a response. I plan on calling a big player like Alcoa or Novelis one day if my volume warrants it. Why not cut out the middle man and get the higher price that the yards get? The only problem is that top tier recycler is probably only interested in someone dealing in "x" number of tons of cans, and they would probably want them bailed. I'm guessing they may just refer a small-time collector back to the yard, or maybe even better and have you special deliver the cans to the yard for a higher price than normal. It goes without saying that a yard will typically give you 5 cents or more per pound if you have decent volume, say several hundred pound of UBCs.