Three Home Improvements That Generate Extra Metal For Recycling
You might not realise how much potential scrap metal is lying around your home, cluttering up the yard and not doing anything useful. As they say, one person's junk—yours— can be another's treasure—a recycling plant's. By onselling your scrap metal, you'll make extra cash. Some home improvement projects can generate even more metal—look out for the following opportunities.
Home Renovation
Renovating your home inevitably results in old appliances and materials becoming obsolete once you replace them with newer models or substances. This can leave many previously beloved items on the metal recycling scrap heap. But all is not lost—through recycling, they can usefully live on within newly produced objects.
In a kitchen renovation, you might throw out fridges, ovens and smaller appliances such as toasters. Some of these, fridges, for instance, will need special procedures to remove internal gasses and the like. Other items you might discard during a remodel are sinks, aluminium window frames or plumbing. The good news is that recycling these items will offset renovation costs.
Spring Clean
Another ideal time for a scrap metal inventory is during a spring clean. Do you have old bicycles or lawnmowers in the shed which are gathering rust and dust? Other unused articles might include tools or old bits of furniture such as chairs and tables with metal legs. During a cleanup, you might even decide to replace an old tin shed in return for a fresher more convenient model. Do you have an unused car rusting in your garage or backyard? Such items are prime candidates for pickup by metal recycling services.
You'll be benefiting the environment as manufacturers consume less energy when they use recycled rather than new metal, which means they release fewer harmful greenhouse gasses into the air. Recycling also reduces mining processes, as fewer minerals need to be extracted to create new metal.
Fence Replacement
Another home upgrade which can reap monetary rewards is a metal fence replacement. Rather than throwing out old aluminium slats or tubular aluminium or steel railings into the trash, you can add those to your recycling heap. Metal items are all around the exterior of a home: garage doors, door knockers, letterboxes, guttering and roofing. Old and rusty metalwork can ruin the facade, and if you can earn extra cash through recycling, that provides the perfect excuse to replace them with something more attractive and appealing.
Ferrous Or Non-Ferrous Metal
The elements that you collect will be either ferrous or non-ferrous. Ferrous metals—such as steel and iron—contain carbon and iron. You can usually determine a ferrous metal as it will be drawn to a magnet. Non-ferrous metals—such as aluminium, tin, copper, brass and lead—are not as strong, but are more malleable and you'll find them in cans, wiring and the like, rather than within bridges and skyscrapers.
For more information, reach out to metal recycling services in your area.