What You Should Know About Recycling Ferrous Metals
You might have some experience with recycling metal, but you might not know much about the difference between ferrous and non-ferrous metal. You might even be someone who does not have much experience with metal recycling at all but who is interested in recycling metal sometime in the near future. If you are going to be engaging in ferrous steel recycling, these are some of the things that you will probably want to know beforehand.
It's Easy to Determine Ferrous vs. Non-Ferrous Metal
By sight only, you might find that it's difficult to tell the difference between ferrous and non-ferrous metal. After all, a lot of ferrous metals and non-ferrous metals look a lot alike, particularly if you don't know what the items are made from or if you don't have a lot of experience with different types of metals. However, since most ferrous metals are magnetic, it's actually surprisingly easy to tell the two apart. Just use a magnet so that you can quickly identify and separate ferrous and non-ferrous metal.
You May Not Get as Much Money for Ferrous Metals
Unfortunately, if you are looking to recycle a lot of ferrous metal, you should know that you probably won't get as much for it as you would for most non-ferrous metals. This is because ferrous metals are typically in heavy supply. Since you are typically paid by weight when you recycle metal, you can still get a decent payout if you are selling a lot of ferrous metal at one time. Even if you don't get a lot of money for recycling your ferrous metals, however, you can feel good in knowing that you are disposing of them in an ecologically responsible way.
You'll Probably Want to Separate Your Ferrous Metals
Because you typically will not get as much money for your ferrous metals, you will probably want to separate them from any non-ferrous metals that you are looking to recycle. If you recycle all of your metal together, then you might be paid at the ferrous metal rate for all of your metal. This could cause you to lose money. If you separate your ferrous and non-ferrous metal, on the other hand, you can get more money for other metals, such as copper. Depending on how much non-ferrous metal you are recycling along with your ferrous metal, you might find that the price difference between the two will more than make up for the time that it takes to separate your metal.