Scrap Metal Grades: What Usually Affects Value

Grade matters more than the metal name

Two pieces that both contain copper or aluminum can receive different grades. Yards consider composition, cleanliness, coatings, attachments, size, and how much processing is required before the material can be resold.

Grade names are not perfectly universal. Ask your yard what it calls a material and what preparation changes the category before spending time processing it.

Copper and insulated wire

Clean, unalloyed copper is generally separated from copper tubing with solder or fittings, motors, transformers, and insulated wire. Insulated wire can be graded by copper recovery, insulation, connectors, and whether the yard accepts that construction.

Never burn wire or coatings. Burning can release hazardous substances, create a fire risk, violate local rules, and make a yard reject the material.

Brass

Brass items may include plumbing fittings, valves, fixtures, and hardware. Steel screws, rubber, plastic, plated parts, and other attachments can affect the grade. A magnet can help reveal some ferrous attachments, but it cannot confirm an alloy by itself.

Aluminum

Common categories can include cans, siding, sheet, cast aluminum, extrusions, wheels, and insulated aluminum wire. Paint, iron attachments, rubber, glass, and mixed alloys can change how the yard buys the material.

Stainless steel and other alloys

Stainless grades contain different alloying elements and may be sorted with identification equipment. Some stainless is weakly magnetic or non-magnetic, so a magnet test alone does not establish its grade.

Specialty alloys, catalytic converters, electronics, batteries, refrigerant equipment, and sealed containers can have special acceptance, documentation, environmental, or safety requirements. Contact the yard before transporting them.

Ferrous steel and iron

Ferrous scrap is often separated by preparation, dimensions, density, and source. A yard may distinguish light iron, heavy melt, appliances, vehicles, and prepared steel. Ask about size limits and prohibited attachments before cutting anything.

A useful sorting rule

Sort only as far as you can identify the material safely and consistently. Keep an unknown item separate, photograph it, and ask the buyer. A reliable label from your yard is more valuable than a confident guess from an old online chart.