If you are interested in making extra money on the side, then you should consider collecting scrap metal. Copper is one of the most valuable scrap metals, and it can be found in almost any industrial or construction setting. The key to making a maximum profit on scrap copper is to find sources of free copper that will offer you plenty of raw material to work with. If you run an honest copper scrapping business, then you should have no problem getting referrals from reliable customers.
What Is Copper?
Copper is a reddish-brown metal that used to be the only material used in plumbing pipes. These days, vinyl and plastic are primarily used in plumbing, but that does not mean that there isn’t a lot of copper out there. Copper is also found inside the black coated wire used in cable television installations and in residential and commercial electrical work. If you want to scrap copper, then you need to be able to identify it and know how to strip copper wires fast.
Making Your Connections For Scrapping
Before you head out to start scrapping copper, you should make contact with the salvage yards in your area and find out how much they pay for copper scrap. Each yard will pay a different amount, and some yards will negotiate with you on larger quantities. You need to make good contacts at the scrap yards so that you always have people to talk to when you are ready to scrap your metal.
Getting Referrals
Once you have your copper scrapping network set up, you need to find copper to scrap. A good place to start are with the local demolition companies. Most demolition companies keep their scrap and sell it themselves, but they will often let other companies take away the smaller amounts of scrap metal on smaller projects. Make contact with the local demolition companies and offer to do scrap metal removal to get the copper you need.
Remodeling contractors, especially electricians, can also be great sources of scrap copper. When an electrician updates a client’s electrical system, they will often have piles of scrap copper wire to get rid of. You may have to pay a small fee to take the copper, but it can be worth it. Plumbers also offer steady sources of scrap copper piping when they do remodeling projects as well.
Clean Your Copper
To get the maximum dollar for your copper scrap, you have to clean the copper pipes and strip the copper wires of their insulation. It is a process that can take a while, but most salvage yards pay more for clean copper.
Recycling scrap copper helps the environment, and it can put money in your pocket. You need to constantly be looking for sources of copper to recycle, and you need to keep your name circulating as someone who is a reliable person to remove scrap metal from any type of job site.
Jim Treebold is a North Carolina based writer. He lives by the mantra of “Learn 1 new thing each day”! Jim loves to write, read, pedal around on his electric bike and dream of big things. Drop him a line if you like his writing, he loves hearing from his readers!