Recycling Newbie Seeks Advice for Selling Aluminum Cans

I am a newbie to "recycling for profit" and I feel a little overwhelmed.

I've been collecting 5.5 oz. aluminum cat food cans from family members so I can see if it's worth my time trying to make a (small) profit. I weighed the cans on a kitchen scale to determine that 34 cans = 1 pound. I think the last time I checked, 1 pound = 35 cents. So I put 5 pounds worth of cans into trash bags so I'll know approximately (within pennies) how much my load is worth.

I guess I'm worried that I'll get screwed over because I'm new, young looking, and very shy. So I'm looking for advice and tips that anyone can offer to make things easier for me.



Oh, I'm wondering whether it's ok to flatten the cans or not? I don't have anything to flatten with other than a hammer. But I realize that I'll probably make a better profit if I can flatten the cans so more fit in my car, rather than trying to put them in the truck which eats more gas.

Hi and welcome to SMF.

Have you checked with yards in your area as to how much the pay out for cat food cans?
Most, if not all yards do not consider these as Aluminium sheet Reasons given, when these cans are smelted, a very high percentage of the material goes up the chimney.

Locally, I get 5 cents/lb, washed out and labels removed. Crushing them, if U have the time/inclination, will obviously get more product into the trash bags :-)

Good luck.

Hmm.... The last time I checked about the cans must've been in 2013. I know the place I asked said they'd take them. I should probably check again.

So what methods are good for flattening them? I'm not running over them with the car. I don't mind smashing them with a hammer, it's a great way to get out all that aggression. It does seem rather time consuming though.

I turn mine in with my soda cans. And run over mine to save space, 8 or 10lb to a bag.

Might check different yards for prices.

My place gives me a nickel for every Beer and Soda can I bring them

My place buys them as sheet, not can price. I don't have to remove the labels.

Don't worry too much on how you look. Just watch the scale. Even if you don't know what you are looking at, watch the scale like you do this all the time. Heck, the scale guy might even get nervous.

If you want to seem like an authentic scrapper, don't wash your hands. Wear dirty jeans. Better yet, you could come in with a scratch and sniff shirt http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/day-l...ike-today.html

It is best to check with the yard before flattening. One yard near me doesn't buy flattened cans at all any more after they found that people were putting dirt in them before flattening.

For those that don't mind advertising you can seek those that want cans for backyard foundry hobbies where they melt them and cast wall plaques and such.

Before prices for cans here skyrocketed here you could mix a few of them in with your beer, soda cans. Now, no way. They can go in your clean sheet / MLC or at stricter yards as dirty aluminum by me, so best to call and see how they want them! All metal is money, so they are worth something!

smash them down with an 8x8 steel tamper on driveway,get one at garden section at Home Depot, Lowes.

My yard only gives dirty aliminum for them.

Here in Southern Cal. we get well over $2.00 and up to $2.20 per pound for aluminum cans CRV (Cal. Redemption Value). So we cannot mix other types of aluminum cans and they don't like any of the aluminum cans crushed. The automated machinery used prior to crushing and bailing will reject most of the crushed cans, requiring more hand sorting and cost for processing yard. So we don't crush, not crushing saves us time too, only advantage to crushing is if you need the space!

Aluminum pet food cans (all non CRV cans), aluminum foil, aluminum turnings (with machine shop cutting oil), pie pans, frozen food trays, etc. All go as contaminated aluminum $.20 to $.25 per pound and this is the lowest aluminum grade. I actually do a lot of this grade (schools, day care centers, machine shop customers). Stinky, but if you get enough of it, will start to smell like money, it all adds up!

I'd never thought to save the cans(just the tabs for projects) but Upstate would take em as tin at $0.09/lb. If you ever decided to start saving the tabs, those will go as clean aluminum since their pure and Upstate pays $0.40/lb for em. It's junk prices either way but something's better then nothing.

Welcome from New York btw.. rainy capital of the world it seems this past week.

A few things I found out about Ali cans....
There's great info on the web about them from the bigger Aluminium buyers.
They don't pay much. Well sorta don't... So the best way



to make money from them is to 'spend' as less time as
possible with them. ie If you 'spend' twice as much time doing cans, you just halfed your profit....

Ali cans are made from the same ali as the tabs are. (Theres exceptions to this, in theory)

20 pounds of cans weigh the same no matter how much volume they take up.

When the scrap people bail them into cubes, they want to cube to hold together. What you do and how you do it matters a LOT.

Guinness Irish beer cans have a plastic pingpong ball inside them...

The scrap buyers want to be able to know what's inside the cans when they buy them. They need, no, HAVE to know this because....

The scrap buyers will not make a cent from the cans if they are contaminated. Their buyers are very very strict on this subject.

Ali cans weigh 15 GMs, the tab weighs 0.7 gms. (Standard size can)

Its best to put the cans in clear bags so the scrap buyer can see what's inside.

The bigger the bag the better.
----------
The suger in the empty cans attract wasps and snails.

So, from this I can tell you....

Only touch/process the cans once. (To save time)
Use tall clear plastic bags to hold the cans. ie Use the bags that mattresses or rock wool insulation or appliences come in.
Or make your own from plastic tube, the sort that is used
to make air ducting. Its sorta hard to find but I found a end roll of it somewhere. Its 2 foot dia and just looks like plastic sheet on a cardboard tube till you open up the
tube. I make mine about 6 foot or more tall.

Putting the cans in a tall

Arrrh, this tablet thing I use is playing up.

Cont..
Putting the cans in a tall bag makes it easyer to pour into
the bailer. It also minamises the amount of floor space that you use.

So, pick up your Ali can at arms reach. Turn it so the tops
at the bottom and shake out any snails, cigarette butts
and liquid. You know its empty now.
Using your first fingers and thumb, squash the cans sides in so they touch in one place, where your fingers are.
Now drop the can into the plastic sack. That's all you have to do!

By squashing the cans this way it makes a small void inside it. The V effect on the can let's them interlock
together inside the sack while occupying as little space as possible.

Now, when the scrap buyer sees this (clear plastic bag)
and shakes it. They know there's nothing else in the cans. If there was they would have heard the stones or dirt or liquid would move around and make noises.


Now all they have to do is weigh it and pour it into their baler.

Because of the interlocking sides of the cans. When they
squash it into a cube, the cans interlock and hold together like a solid lump.
If you squashed the cans flat, the cans don't interlock and


the cubes break apart in places. This is a real PITA for the scrap buyers.
They can slip on the cans when they are on the ground, they have to pick up each 15gm can from down where their ankles are. One by one...
Their cube bails are compromised, don't weigh right and fall apart in the shipping container. Pita pita pita....

There is very little space saved between a bag of squashed flat Ali cans and the indented cans that I process. It also makes the cans edge sharp which will slice thru the bag. And makes the bag too heavy to process easyly.
You simply save more space and half your time processing them by putting them in a tall bag.
Shut your bag every time you fill it so wasps and snails do not get in. Snails love beer, wasps love sugar..
I hate wasps, anything that can still sting you when its
dead is extra suspect to me.

A while ago I asked a internet cafe that I used "if I could provide them with a recycling bin for all their used Ali cans that they sold".
I told them what my intention was and that I would save then money because they would not have to process the rubbish or pay for the rubbish bags that they put the cans into. (& I will have more $ to spend in their cafe.... he he..)
They jumped on the idea wagon right away. Rubbish is a icky thing to process.
So each week I picked up a rubbish sack (that I supplied, standard rubbish sack) of cans, went around the corner and tested each can and put them into another sack. Dumped the other rubbish that was in the sack (it something that you just have to deal with, even with a sign about putting only Ali cans in the sack, it still happened) into the public rubbish bins.
And carried the sack home on my back, ten city blocks of 'crinkle crinkle crinkle' each time I took a step...

Then when I took all my scrap to the buyer, I used the Ali can $ to pay they guy who's truck I used to take the scrap to the buyers.... (What? You are giving me $35 for two trips, 15 blocks away, when I was going there anyway??)
("Nah, I'm giving you $5. $5 for your truck, $5 for your fuel, $5 for your time. Times two. Plus a extra $5 for no misshaps or screwups during that time... Plus do you know, yes you do, how much it would cost me just to have a truck so I could take it in myself?)

The Ali can tabs... Are worth the same as the cans except for two exceptions..
1. People will pay money for the coloured ones, as craft materials, on ebay

Tablets playing upper...
2. If you redeem cans, they pay for the can, not the tab, remove the tab, get paid the same, sell the collected tabs for Ali prices. Free money. Not a lot, I wouldn't bother.

Now, I took my cans in like this once.
Next time I was there, they worker spotted me, jogged up to me and said..
"Look, I don't know what you did with those cans last time... But do it again. I have never had such a easy time with Ali cans before in the whole time I have worked here"

Now I remember that when he picked up the sack of cans, they hardly made a sound and he looked at me with a puzzeled expression. But I was walking away and he was in the roped off safety/working area.

So, pick up the can upside down, shake it to remove rubbish, put in sack, sell sack of cans to scrap dealer.

Easy simple, simply easy.

Put them in a 55 gallon barrell and glue bricks on top of a piece of plywood cut into the shape of the barrell, put them in the bottom and drop it on the cans. You may want a good amount of weight to ensure they crush, even pressure will also prevent the cans popping up on the sides.


Make a hammer to crush them in one hit such as pouring concrete into a flat and thick form with a handle in it.


Use a tamping tool that is used to pack dirt and gravel

There is tons of way to do it, I'm sure you will find the best 😀

Originally Posted by DevinThaScrapper

Put them in a 55 gallon barrell and glue bricks on top of a piece of plywood cut into the shape of the barrell, put them in the bottom and drop it on the cans. You may want a good amount of weight to ensure they crush, even pressure will also prevent the cans popping up on the sides.

Make a hammer to crush them in one hit such as pouring concrete into a flat and thick form with a handle in it
Use a tamping tool that is used to pack dirt and gravel

There is tons of way to do it, I'm sure you will find the best ��

Thats a lot of work for no extra return.
Id rather small tiny transformers up for their Copper value.
Even the tiny transformers will return 3 cents each.
Thats twice as much as a Ali can is worth.....