In Australia, scrap metal is big business. Most scrap metal merchants buy scrap in bulk from independent operators who scour the countryside looking for old cars, trucks, farm machinery etc, anything they can get their hands on cheaply. They advertise top prices for scrap metal and they come and take it all away in big trucks never to be seen again. Countless relics having significant heritage value have vanished from rural communities as a result. It all gets sorted (ferrous/non-ferrous) with aluminium usually being treated separately, then is shredded and baled before shipping off to china to come back as cars, washing machines, fridges etc.

Most local authority waste 'recycling' centres are simply collection points for the big scrap metal merchants or 'waste management' companies (read landfill operators) and scavenging from these centres is strictly prohibited and this is strongly enforced. The only way to get anything scrap is to go to smaller manufacturing or fabrication shops and ask. Most are willing to let you have their offcuts for next to nothing, but don't hope for much more than standard hot-rolled sheet, plate or structural steel sections. Non-ferrous is almost impossible to get in any decent size or quality.

I'm afraid the days of the accessible scrap-yard have gone. Mine now has a high fence with razor wire on top, 'No Visitors" signs, and at least two bad-tempered Alsatians roving inside.

Partly to keep children safe but mostly to keep out thieves and/or nosey Parkers. Scrap metal is far more valuable than it used to be. The owner of my local scrapyard is currently serving a 6 year sentence for receiving large quantities of stolen metal and organising thefts; electric cable including signal wiring off the railway, man-hole covers, garden-gates, road signs, safety fencing from building sites, lead roofing, etc, etc….

Dave

In NZ a demolition yard is not a scrap yard, but a place where architectural bits and pieces from demolished buildings go, and available for resale to the general public.

In Christchurch there is also a recycling shop that sells "rubbish", The Eco Shop. They sell anything, from a Home Built Aircraft, to a tea spoon. Books, records, DVDs. sporting goods. Every city should have a shop like this. I got a new catcher for my lawn mower, it cost me $5.

Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 24/03/2018 12:02:29

CF Booths in Rotherham. Highly recommended, they even cater for railway enthusiasts!

Geoff

At my favourite yard they let me look in the bins and pull out likely treasure.
Then we go through the ritual of weighing it, to within 10 grammes, then to the office to 'calculate' a price;
which myseriously always works out to be a multiple of £10 ?

We had a change to the regulations here in NSW Australia , you used to be able to take scrap to your local scrap yard and they would pay you for it but because some people made a living out of breaking into factories and stealing metal especially copper they now require you to have an ABN ( basically a registered business ) before they will give you a cent for your scrap ( the scrappies that obey the law that is ) This has an added advantage that is helps stop thieving mongrels knocking off locos from model clubs and hacking them up for the copper boiler but there are still some dodgy scrap merchants out there and i hope they all get caught and punished !

I have found recently there are quite a few metel merchants selling offcuts on ebay , sometimes the prices are reasonable sometimes not but always woth checking out and i have picked up a few bargains here and there.

My local scrapyard is my main source of metal, and as I take all my scrap there anyway, he usually says "take it", but I always insist on giving him something, that way I am never afraid to ask. Unfortunately at the moment, having a wander round the yard is impossible, as it is full to the gate, and about 12 feet high!

Silly old Duffer's remark sounds like he's in Johannesburg South Africa, for man hole covers disappeared long ago and was replaced with plastic ones that's now vanishing too, not to mention copper and aluminium from overhead lines.There's a huge recycling depot for plastic and paper now part of a scrapyard. They don't mind one from browsing for any material though. I buy a lot of material from them, aluminium cyl. heads and engine blocks for casting projects.