Recycling scrap metal is a great way to make some quick cash. In fact there are a variety of things you can scrap including materials from your home and garage. That is why so many homeowners will scrap their old cars, television sets, faulty kitchen appliances and more. Of course, it is every scrapper's goal to make the most money as possible on their scrap metal. There are a variety of ways to do this, organizing your metal, only making trips when you have acquired a large amount of metal, and cleaning your metal (breaking it down into it's single components) are all ways to increase your take home earnings. But one large influence on the your earnings when it comes to scrap metal, is the current prices. Prices constantly change for scrap metal, which can make it difficult to know when to recycle your metal.

​What Causes Price Changes
There are a variety of reasons that scrap metal prices change. The best way to know what your local yard's prices are is to contact them directly. The reasons scrap metal prices change ranges from global reasons and local reasons. Here are some of the top reasons your scrap yard will likely change their prices.

• Market Supply/Demand: Like any industry, scrap metal is susceptible to changes in the market. Depending on the demand for recycled metal, prices could rise and fall. For instance, when there is a demand from car manufacturers for more recycled aluminum, the price of aluminum could increase. It can be difficult to predict, but experienced scrap metal recyclers can notice when prices trend.
• Stockpile Changes: Across the world there are large stock piles of scrap metal. If stockpiles are not being used, this can drastically lower the price for new scrap. For instance, after the 2008 recession, many countries and provinces saw lower scrap metal prices because stockpiles were not being used.
• Transportation Costs: The scrap metal industry relies on the oil and gas industry. Recycled metal often has to be hauled long distances. Yards will factor in the cost of moving their scrap metal, so when gas prices increase, metal prices can decrease. 
• Local Competition: Local competition is a large factor in scrap metal prices. Generally, more yards means more competition. If a yard exists and there are no other nearby yards, they are not compelled to keep prices competitive. When you recycle metal, you want to find a nearby yard, but you may not want to go to the nearest yard if that means uncompetitive pricing. You have to factor the cost of transporting your metal compared to changes in prices. 

What To Do With Scrap Metal Price Changes
Because metal prices change frequently, it is important to choose an appropriate time to recycle your metal. Unfortunately, it can often be unpredictable when prices will rise and fall. In many cases, certain metals may increase in value while others remain stagnant or devalue. It may not be beneficial to only recycle some of your metal, as opposed to all of it, depending on your distance to the scrap yard. The best advice is to weight these factors together when deciding where and when to recycle scrap metal. If you need quick cash, you may decide to scrap regardless of market fluctuations. 

4 Environmental Reasons You Should Recycle Scrap Metal
Throughout Massachusetts businesses and individuals are recycling old scrap metal. At many yards you can get paid for your scrap iron, copper, non-ferrous & ferrous metals. Aside from a quick check, a great reason to recycle scrap metal is for the environmental benefits. Selling scrap metal isn't just great for making some quick cash, but it stimulates the local economy and helps create green jobs locally. Here are a few green reasons to recycle some metal today. 
1. Lowers Risk of Toxic Leaching
There are a variety of metals that are unsafe to place in a landfill. Many metals, especially those found in batteries and in electronics can cause toxic chemical leaching. Leaching is when electronic wastes decays in a landfill. Mercury, lead, and cadmium can all end up in the soil, ground water, or in the air near a landfill. This pollution is dangerous to both wildlife and humans. 
 2. Decreases Landfill size
America's landfills have become a serious problem for pollution. Landfills take up large amounts of space, cause pollution, and are one of the biggest factors in environmental harm in our country. When so much garbage decays so close together it can cause serious adverse effects. Landfills also take a lot of funds to manage and maintain. Decreasing the size of our landfills goes a long way in protecting our country. 
3. Limits Greenhouse Gases
Greenhouse gases are the largest threat to our climate. Greenhouse gases erode our ozone and increase the overall temperature of the planet. Recycling metal limits the energy consumed to mine and smelt new materials. Recycled metals require much less energy to recycle into new goods and products. 
4. Less Energy Consumed
As mentioned in the previous point, increasing how much metal we recycle decreases how much energy we use to create new metal products. Whenever we can consume less energy we produce less waste and less byproducts. 
Scrap Metal Near You
If you would like to help the environment by recycling old scrap metal, come to Second Street Iron & Metal in Everett. Our team would be happy to provide the best prices to you for your metal. If you have any questions about the metals we take or what we pay please visit our website or contact us online. 

3 Advantages of Recycling Metals

When it comes to getting rid of metals, or items containing metals, most people just throw them out in the trash and never think of them again. However, taking these metal items to scrap yards to scrap is a better option not only for the environment, as it is recycling,  but also to put some money in your pockets. As scrap yards are willing to pay money for both ferrous and non-ferrous metals. 

Advantages of Recycling Metals

Saves Energy

When it comes to energy, it takes less energy to turn scrap metal into a new product than harvesting new resources to make new products. The metal is already there and doesn't need to be created and the only thing that needs to happen is the scrap needs to be modified for its new purpose. To show how much energy is being saved, when you recycle one ton of metal it is the equivalent to the energy required to run four homes for four months! 

Conserves Natural Resources

When you recycle metals, you conserve diminishing natural resources as they recycling industry can make use of the existing metals rather than drilling deep and recouping new base metals. When existing metals are used, it preserves the natural landscape and protects wildlife. when resources needed to be minded, you are disturbing the natural habitats of species in that area.

Slow Landfill Growth

The biggest benefit out of recycling, no matter if it is metals or not, is the fact that it keeps them out of landfills. Metal especially, take a long time to biodegrade and recycling these items will prevent landfill overgrowth which is never a good thing for the environment. 

4 Items To Scrap This Winter

The winter season is upon us but that doesn't mean that you don't have to stop looking for metals to recycle and scrap. In addition to getting rid of unwanted materials, you can make some money by scrapping certain items at a scrap yard. While the warmer seasons seem to be a better time to go out and scrap metal, the winter also offers opportunities for you to scrap metal whether it is ferrous metals or non-ferrous metals.  

Items To Scrap This Winter

Water Pipes

Water pipes are valuable in the scrapping world because they contain copper, which is one of the more valuable metals to scrap. If you had a big renovation or remodeling job done on your home you can gather your old pipes and bring them to a scrap yard to get a good return on them.

Kitchen Appliances

With the passing of Black Friday and the upcoming holidays there could be new kitchen appliances being brought into your home. Instead of throwing out your old appliances you can scrap them instead. Scrap yards are happy to take kitchen appliances as they are a great source of steel, stainless steel, and copper wiring.

Old Radiators & Air Conditioning Units

We had a crazy hot summer which means your a/c units were probably used heavily so you may need new ones. Instead of just throwing them out, definitely consider bringing them to a scrap yard. This goes the same for radiators that no longer work. You can get good money for them as they are great sources of steel and copper both in the body and wiring of the units. 

Desks & Filing Cabinets 

During the winter, residents are usually replacing old desks or appliances with new ones. In addition, offices usually use this time to move to an new office as the moving companies are usually in their off season so businesses can use them to move to a new office. During these moves they could update their desks and filing cabinets and get rid of the old ones. A great way to make money on this move is to take any desk or filing cabinet that you don't need and scrap them for money.
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Top 10 best metals to scrap in 2019 and where to find them

​Insulated Copper Wire
Insulated copper wire is a non-ferrous metal that can be found in many common appliances, computer cords,  and in construction sites.
There are many types of copper wire that can be scrapped.  A few common types to look for are:

• THHN Wire
• Insulated Copper Cable
• Fire Wire
• Data Wire

• ​Cat 5 Wire
• Cat 6 Wire
  
  

#2 Copper tubing
#2 copper tubing fetches $1.85/lb and can often be found in your plumbing pipes.

Aluminum
Aluminum varies by quality but fetches around $0.3-0.4 per pound.  Although it is not as valuable as copper metals it can be much easier to find.  It can be found in

• Old aluminum chairs,  beach chairs, outdoor chairs, all can be scrapped for aluminum
• TV antennas
• Pots and Pans
• Jacketing from BX Wire
• Aluminum Cans

Aluminum cans are probably the largest source of aluminum you'll find on a daily basis.  They can add up quickly to large sums of scrap aluminum.

Brass
Brass is one of the higher valued metals to scrap for over one dollar per pound.  The most common source of brass is brass radiators.  Scrapping your brass radiator can yield a great result with a heavy radiator.

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