Metal Recycling Pricing and Costs

Discover pricing and costs for metal recycling solutions

By Kathryn Keep
Environmental and economic concerns have led to unprecedented growth in the metal recycling business. It costs far more to obtain new metal than to recycle metal. Aluminum and gold are popular choices for the metal recycler, but there are other choices. For example, computer equipment and batteries make up a large part of metal recycling.

What are the costs involved in metal recycling and what prices can you expect to receive for reclaimed metal? Metal recycling pricing and costs can fluctuate daily, so it pays to check various metal recycling companies locally and online. Whether you want to sell metal for recycling or you want to find the price to purchase recycled metal, you can benefit from knowing the pricing and costs. Here are a few ways to find out what prices to expect when you recycle metal:

1. Explore price indexes for aluminum metal recycling services.

2. Check out online prices for scrap metal recycling.

3. Learn what prices to expect from precious metal recycling.

 

Find resources for aluminum metal recyclers

Whether you are recycling aluminum beverage cans, aluminum foil or any other aluminum, there are different prices for different items and different grades. The grades of metal have a direct impact on what you can get for recycling the metal. Prices per pound can range from $0.06 to $0.69.
Try: RecycleNet and Metal World both have daily updated aluminum prices for different categories of aluminum.

Learn more about scrap metal recycling prices

Scrap metal can include many different types of metal. Copper, lead, nickel, brass, steel and lithium are just a few metals commonly recycled. Recycling plants categorize by ferrous metals, like tin and steel, and non-ferrous metals, such as copper.
Try: According to ScrapIndex, steel prices can range from $169 to $211 per ton with other metals ranging from $.20 to $1.56 per pound. Raleigh Metal Recycling reports pricing of $.03 to $.11 per pound for ferrous metal and $.30 to $2.80 per pound for non-ferrous metal.

Discover what to expect from precious metal recyclers

Precious metal recycling includes gold, silver and many other precious metals such as platinum. Precious metal pricing indexes often list the ever-changing spot price per troy ounce. For silver, this is around $12-$13. Platinum may range from $1000 to $1200.
Try: Northwest Territorial Mint offers pricing charts, and it updates the charts and trends for precious metals every ten minutes. METALchange.com publishes prices for various types of recyclable gold. Prices can range from $14 per gram for 24-karat gold to $8.31 for gold-plated scrap.


Find Pre-Screened Vendors

Compare quotes and save:






Trusted Vendors

Siemens Corporation

Municipal, industrial and commercial water treatment systems and services by Siemens. From RO cartridges to biological membrane systems, Siemens can help you engineer a solution to meet your needs. Find out more.

Visit siemens.com/water