Using a car for scrap collecting

Welcome from Maine.

Most guys use a pickup truck or a van. I work out of a small economy car. Like yourself ... i mainly focus on copper & brass. Maybe a bit of e-waste but that's awfully scarce lately. I wouldn't really say that it's profitable. It's just a part time side gig for a little extra cash. I check my honey hole every day on the way to my regular job. Some days i come across something. Some days i don't. It's hit or miss. Mostly miss in the dead of winter.

One thing i would suggest is that you keep track of your time & mileage on your car. Compare that to what you're getting out of it at the scrap yard. You might have four hours & 20 miles invested with all of the running around. It might not be worth doing if you are only getting paid $ 15.00 at the yard. You could even be losing money after paying for gas and wear n' tear on your vehicle. (The real cost to run a vehicle these days is about fifty cents a mile.)

It's all a numbers game. Every scrapper's situation is different.

Originally Posted by hills

Welcome from Maine.

Most guys use a pickup truck or a van. I work out of a small economy car. Like yourself ... i mainly focus on copper & brass. Maybe a bit of e-waste but that's awfully scarce lately. I wouldn't really say that it's profitable. It's just a part time side gig for a little extra cash. I check my honey hole every day on the way to my regular job. Some days i come across something. Some days i don't. It's hit or miss. Mostly miss in the dead of winter.

One thing i would suggest is that you keep track of your time & mileage on your car. Compare that to what you're getting out of it at the scrap yard. You might have four hours & 20 miles invested with all of the running around. It might not be worth doing if you are only getting paid $ 15.00 at the yard. You could even be losing money after paying for gas and wear n' tear on your vehicle. (The real cost to run a vehicle these days is about fifty cents a mile.)

It's all a numbers game. Every scrapper's situation is different.

Hi mate merry Christmas and thanks for your reply. I'm in the uk so we dont really use pickups over here the scrapers tend to use the open bed 3.5 ton trucks or just regular Van's.
I have a car that I'm currently breaking and I plan to take all the wiring out and that's what got me started on the scrap hunt. As I want to build up a large haul of copper.

There seems to be a fair bit around me atm but it may just be people are upgrading there appliances with it being Christmas. I started hunting for wire/cable about 2 weeks ago. So far I've picked up about 3kg that I've stripped. Also Over the last 5 days I've managed to grab 4 fridge compressors and a large microwave for the copper

I've been hunting brass to but that seems somewhat more allusive lol

P.s I forgot to say that was brilliant advice about keeping an eye on what fuel and time I'm using. I've not gone out on a proper search yet.
I've just been driving different ways to places I normally go and if I see anything worth taking I'll pull over and pick it up.

Merry Christmas !

It's good that you don't go out of your way. Much more efficient.

You have to think about your time though. That has value. Scrapping is a trade. It's like any other trade. It takes awhile to learn the ropes. Most of it is trial & error to see what works best for you. I'll try to give you a couple of examples.

1: To strip wire or not to strip wire ?

Some of the scrap yards have this machine called a wire granulator. It can literally strip tons of finely stranded automotive wire per hour. You could compare that to what you can do in your workshop. Maybe you can recover half a kilo of copper per hour on a good day ?

That's an awful lot of work for very little gain. Maybe it works out better for you to sell the unstripped automotive wire to the yard and let them deal with stripping it ? Let the machine do the tedious & time consuming work ?

2: To break down a refrigeration compressor -or- sell it whole as a sealed unit ?

It's not a bad thing to break down a few to see what's involved. It's kind of a nasty job with everything being covered in oil and all. There are environmental concerns as well. A fridge has Freon in it. The Freon needs to be properly removed by a professional before cutting the lines to to the compressor. Then there's all that oil. That's an environmental concern. It needs to be properly disposed of.

The environmental laws are pretty strict here in Maine. For me: The fridge compressors are far more trouble than they are worth.

That's the thing though ... it's different for every scrapper. The laws are probably different in the UK. The things that don't work for me might work really well for you.

It's all trial & error.

I would be careful with the microwaves though. There are a couple of things to watch out for. Any large capacitors can store an electrical charge that could hurt or kill you. Those need to be discharged if they are present. The magnetrons tend to have beryllium ceramics in them. The beryllium is okay if it's unbroken. It's really bad dust to breathe in if the ceramic is cracked or broken. The transformers these days are more aluminum wound than copper wound. Microwaves can be a disappointment as a source of copper because they are so cheaply made these days. It varies ... ya know ?

Hands on experience is the best teacher. Also ...read as much as you can here. It's all been covered before.

Best of luck in your new endeavor !

Also, recycling metals in UK requires a license.

https://www.gov.uk/scrap-metal-dealer-registration

Overview

You must hold either a site or mobile collector’s licence, issued by the council, if you’re a scrap metal dealer in England and Wales.

Restrictions

You must not receive scrap metal from a person without verifying their name and address.
You must not buy scrap metal for cash.
A site licence must be displayed in a prominent place, accessible to the public, at each site identified in the licence.
A mobile collector’s licence must be displayed on any vehicle that is being used in the course of the business and can be easily read by a person outside the vehicle.
You must keep a record of all scrap metal you receive including:

• a description including type, form, condition, weight, any marks identifying previous owners or distinguishing features
• the date and time
• the registration mark of the vehicle it was delivered in or on
• the full name and address of the person received from
• the full name of the person who makes the payment acting for the dealer

You must keep a record of all scrap metal you dispose of including:

• a description including type, form and weight (site licence holders only)
• the date and time
• the full name and address of the person disposed to
• if payment is made (by sale or exchange), the price of other consideration received (site licence holders only)

You must keep your records for 3 years and allow the council or police to inspect your premises and records if asked.