This morning was a rainy gray day. My son, who has a small handyman business, had some down time so he decided to make a trip to the scrap yard.
For years, he has sold scrap metal occasionally, which has given him the ability to identify valuable metals by sight. When he spots metal in public areas that he knows he can sell, he says it’s like finding money on the ground, and he can’t resist picking it up.
Today he has four discarded car rims that he casually found in various locations around the city. Three rims are chrome and one is aluminum. He also has a bag of unstripped wire that he has been gathering for some time. The wire consist mainly of cords cut from old appliances. He felt that these items when taken tog, ether would fetch a decent price. He carefully loaded everything into the back of the car and headed toward the scrap yard.
Upon arriving at the yard, he transferred the rims and the bag of wire into a large bin provided by the scrap yard and wheeled it into the receiving building for nonferrous metals. He got in line behind other customers who had bins filled to the brim.
As the line advanced and it was his turn, he watched as the scale-master pulled his bin onto the computed connected scale to be processed. The scale-master would pull out a rim and call out the name of its metal. At the same time a clerk would enter the name into the computer which noted the weight and calculated their buying price. After doing this for each rim and the bag of mixed wire the clerk handed my son a receipt that had a bar-code on it. It showed his profit for the day. After receiving his receipt, he promptly headed over to the on-site ATM. The machine scanned the receipt and dispensed his cash payment of $89 without any issues.
He was pleased with the amount he was paid when comparing it to the labor that was required to receive it. On his way back to the car, he was feeling very satisfied with his successful trip to the scrap yard even thou it was still raining.
There is no way to tell exactly how many people in the United States sell scrap metal. However we do know that the scrap metal industry is a growing global multi-billion dollar industry.
According to The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), we know there are over 17,000 scrap metal and recycling companies operating in America that employ approximately 150,000 people.
Many individuals and businesses sell scrap metal to dealers, who then process and sell the metal to manufacturers and other customers for the production of new products. The scrap metal industry’s growth is driven by the increasing demand for metals and the rising awareness of environmental issues. The top three metals sold are steel, aluminum, and copper, with steel being the most popular.
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