What common scrap grades are, what they contain and who uses them. Use it to check a grade before you buy or sell.
Thick steel scrap such as plates, beams and pipes, cut to fit a furnace. HMS 1 is generally heavier and cleaner than HMS 2, and the two are often traded as a mix like 80:20.
Steel, often from end-of-life vehicles and appliances, run through a shredder into small fragments. It’s dense and uniform, so it charges easily.
Brittle, high-carbon iron from engine blocks and machinery. Foundries use it to make new castings.
Cut lengths of old railway track. They’re high-quality steel that can be re-rolled or melted.
Curled swarf and chips from machining. They can carry cutting oil and take up a lot of space, so they’re often briquetted before melting.
Steel alloyed with chromium and nickel. 316 also contains molybdenum. Grades must be kept separate to protect their alloy value.
Clean, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire with no visible oxidation. It’s the top copper scrap grade.
Clean, unalloyed copper such as pipe, solids and thick wire, without solder or paint.
Unalloyed copper with oxidation, solder or fittings attached. It has less copper than No. 1, so it sells lower.
Copper wire and cable still in its plastic jacket. Its value depends on how much copper it yields after stripping.
A copper and zinc alloy from fittings, valves and taps. It’s remelted into new brass products.
Brass with more copper, often with tin and lead too, from valves, pump parts and water meters.
Cast aluminium such as engine parts, gearbox housings and wheels. Secondary smelters use it to make alloy ingots.
Used aluminium sheet and panels, which may be painted. It’s lighter and cleaner than castings.
A shredded mix, mostly aluminium, with copper, brass and zinc, usually from vehicles. Its make-up varies, so check the lot’s analysis.
Soft and hard lead from pipes, sheets and similar items. Lead batteries are a separate, regulated category.
Die-cast parts and old zinc items, which are remelted into zinc alloys.
High-value alloys used in demanding industrial parts. Value depends on the exact alloy, so an analysis matters.
Boards from electronics containing copper and small amounts of precious metals. In India, e-waste should go to authorised recyclers.
Mixed electronic equipment and parts. E-waste is regulated in India and should go to authorised recyclers.