From what I've seen on this thread, there are really 2 questions:
1) When is it worth it to strip wire?
2) Is it legal to burn wire and sell the product that results?
With regard to #1, IF you are including your time in the equation, then it is only worth stripping the wire if the recovery is above 50%. I only strip wire that is above 80% recovery at our yard. My labor cost for anything less is simply not worth it. You need to be someone like HighVoltage with a chopper to make money processing the lower grade stuff.
As far as the burned wire question, it is illegal to burn wire intentionally for the purpose of recovering the copper. It is illegal to purchase burned communications wire without a letter from a fire marshal stating that it was recovered from an actual site of a legitimate fire. Burned wire itself may still be purchased, however it generally goes for a lower price than #2.
Hope that sheds a little bit of light on the subject.
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