When it comes time to eliminate your business’s old computers, machines, and other equipment, choosing the right disposal method is more important than you think. You may ask yourself if you attempt to disassemble them, take them to a scrap yard, or hire someone else to handle the process.
Finding the right way to dispose of scrap may seem daunting. However, with the right knowledge and support, it can become a fully integrated part of your business model. Eventually, disposal can even become a source of revenue for your business.
Getting started may be the biggest hurdle. Metal, e-scrap, and other forms of waste each require unique expertise to dispose of in a safe, environmentally conscious way.
How Does a Scrap Yard Work?
Generally, a scrap yard is any organization that purchases scrap metal from any source to resell or recycle. Depending on the scrap yard, there are usually set prices for various types of scrap based on their weight, ease of recyclability, and potential resale value. While nonferrous metals like copper, aluminum, and zinc are common favorites, whole machines, devices, and even cars can also be sold to a scrap yard for the value of their metal components.
Scrap yards typically don’t recycle metals themselves. Usually, they buy metals at the lowest prices they can. Once they reach a certain amount, they sell the collected metal to another company for recycling.
Selling to a scrap yard is often the go-to choice for tradespeople and anyone working on renovation projects that leave them with unusable metal. Pipes, wires, siding, and other building materials are common, but anything containing metal can usually be sold at a scrap yard.
While scrap yards sometimes accept electronics, they don’t always specialize in them. This means that, while the metals inside the devices are valuable, a scrap yard will often offer an even lower purchasing price because the electronics will have to be resold to an e-scrap specialist to make a profit.
Scrap Yard vs. Salvage Yard
For cars and some larger pieces of machinery, salvage yards are another option. Unlike a scrap yard, where the price you get is based on the value of your scrap’s metal components, salvage yards focus on the reusability of your scrap’s parts. Salvage yards tend to focus on cars, but other types of machinery can sometimes be sold to them as well.
After buying machinery cars, the salvage yard will disassemble them to find which components still work. These are then offered for sale as a cheaper, more sustainable alternative to ordering newly manufactured parts. In some cases, rather than assembling the junked cars themselves, salvage yards will allow customers to come onto the yard to find and remove the parts they want for a reduced price.
While selling to a salvage yard can be a great option for those looking to get rid of old cars, salvage yards are often not the best choice for companies looking to get rid of their devices and equipment.
Safely Disposing of Your Scrap
As mentioned above, you can make money by selling junk metal to a scrap yard. While this often seems the easiest solution, it may not always be the best option for your company. For those with more significant amounts of metals and electronics to dispose of, working with a specialized metal recycling company may be a more cost-effective and sustainable option.
Secure disposal is especially critical when it comes to computers and other electronics. While businesses are often cautious about protecting their data when the devices are active, little consideration is given to what becomes of that information when the computers are scrapped. Simply dropping your company’s old computers off at a scrap yard may be the cheap, easy option, but this can leave your data vulnerable to anyone who picks those devices up. Even deleting their information is not guaranteed unless a ‘data shredding’ expert does the wiping.
The ITAD Market
Rather than accepting the lowest price for computers from a scrap yard without electronic recycling expertise, you can find more appropriate options. The IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) market is a secondary market for businesses that remarket the discarded IT hardware they purchase. Different ITAD companies sometimes coordinate with each other to sell equipment, and IT organizations and purchasers may also work with ITAD companies directly.
While you may not have heard of it before, ITAD is essential to businesses in every sector. According to a recent report, the ITAD market will be worth $23.5 billion within the next five years. Since the start of the COVID pandemic, there has been even more strain on the IT asset and e-scrap markets than before due to supply chain issues, making ITAD concerns even more pressing than they have been in the past.
Finding the Best Metal and E-Waste Solution with FAMCe
While accessing the full benefits of the ITAD market can be daunting for organizations without specialized knowledge in recycling, working with the right ITAD partner can ensure that all of your electronic devices and other nonferrous metals are disposed of in a safe, efficient way.
When choosing the right scrap and ITAD strategy, First America Metal Corporation (FAMCe) has you covered. We have been a world leader in electronics and metal scrap recycling and non-ferrous export for over 15 years. Our team has over 30 years of experience in reusing and recycling metal commodities, and we are known as one of the top five metal exporters in the entire Midwest.
FAMCe specializes in creating innovative, greener solutions for businesses or individuals who want transparent and environmentally-friendly methods of reusing and recycling electronic scrap, high-temperature alloys, and non-ferrous scrap. Our expertise, unparalleled customer service, and aggressive pricing make FAMCe the leading option for almost any recycling need.
Learn more and get in touch with us at famce.net.
