Scrap Around the House: Kitchen

Scrap Around the House

There is a lot of scrap metal just sitting around in your house.  A few good places to look would be your kitchen, garage/workshop, and the living room/bedrooms. First we will start with just a few things you probably have around your kitchen that could make you some extra money if you start taking note of what you may have just thrown away. 

Looking around, a few things to take note of are...

• Cans: Soda cans and beer cans are frequently collected by many people. Tin cans are also another easy to collect item frequently bought and thrown away. Liberate your fruits and veggies or soda or beer from their metal can and toss it in your collection.  

*Note: Beer/soda cans are typically aluminum and "tin" cans are typically steel. Both can be scrapped but the aluminum is far more valuable. If you have to pick, pick the soda cans.

• Big and small appliances: Microwaves to fridges 6and other appliances may break down. You can't sell broken or old stuff, but you can still make a few bucks off it in scrap. Break down the cords and shells or just sell the whole item as mixed metal. I recommend scrapping only non-functioning or woefully antiquated appliances as working pieces can make you many times more than scrap value.    

*Note: Fridges, freezers and air conditioning units must have the freeon removed from them before scrapping, leagally. Some yards may ignore or overlook this but, to be safe, the fridge must have either a licenced facility remove the freeon or the copper freeon lines must be damaged/cut before being sold for scrap. Please do yourself a favor and check the lines before hauling.

• Silverware, Flatware and Utensils: Most of these items are high quality metal worth a little more than average. Some old silverware pieces may be actual silver, worth around $15-$20 an ounce or more. Most pieces have a stamp on them telling you what it is made of. 

• Pots and Pans: Mostly made of steel and cheaper alloys. Check to see what metal it is made of though, as some higher quality broken or worn out items may be worth more than the cheap-o pots and pans. As stated only scrap old, worn out, and/or broken pieces. Functional pieces are worth much more than their scrap value. 

• Aluminum foil and other metallic "thrash": Aluminum foil, aluminum cooking/baking trays, jar lids, and many other items that you would consider trash are actually worth some money if you collect them up. If it's metal, collect it and you can sell that with the rest of your mixed metal.   

This is just a short list to get you started looking around and noticing some items to scrap. Take the time to save up what you would normally toss and that "garbage" can suddenly turn into green.