Like any business opportunity, the main factor in deciding whether to recycle certain metals is an economic one. If you scrap and recycle those old wheels, batteries, or metal pipes, can you make more money than the operation would cost? In part, the answer comes down to a combination of economics and technological capability. With precious metals, the recovery cost is always far less than the market value, and the technology is there. Therefore, many companies are involved in scrap metal recycling but with a focus on the most valuable parts, which tend to be those containing precious metals like platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Cars and light trucks contain other sources of precious metals and other valuable industrial metals like aluminum and chromium.
Automotive Uses of Precious Metals
Everyone involved in the auto industry, from sales to repair to parts retailers will know that catalytic converters are valuable scrap parts because of their precious metal content. While the precious metal content in the typical car or light truck might be low, a couple of ounces, the sheer volume of vehicle production ensures that the auto industry is a major market for platinum and palladium while also being a significant user of gold and the exceedingly rare metal rhodium.
The platinum group metals (PGMs) palladium, platinum, and rhodium are rare and incredibly useful in a variety of applications, in addition to emission control devices. A collection of 100 converters might have almost a pound each of palladium and platinum. The oxygen sensors from those vehicles’ exhaust systems will have some PGMs as well. These metals drive a large and lucrative scrap recycling industry in North America which, in turn, is driven by the high demand for PGMs and the ease of recovering them versus mining for new metals.
Cars built in the last 20 years or so also contain tiny amounts of gold in several locations. A commercial scrapyard may be able to make a profit by recycling circuit boards inside automotive computers. Other circuit boards may also be found in CD changers, sat nav devices, and LED (Light Emitting Diode) control panels that display GPS maps and perform other functions. Those boards have gold contacts, but airbags are a source of more gold, though removing and disassembling them safely is not easy.
Belanger Converter Recycling makes it easy for businesses to recycle the precious metals in catalytic converters in bulk. But there are plenty of other opportunities in scrap metal recycling for a company that deals with motor vehicles.
More Scrap Metal Opportunities in the Automotive World
Many automotive parts contain metals like copper, chromium, and aluminum. While those materials are not nearly so valuable as PGMs, they are still worth recovering in many cases. Those facts create even more opportunities for recyclers and for businesses that deal in car repair and maintenance. The economics of recovering and reselling those metals, however, are different.
Aluminum wheels are often worth selling for scrap as are a few other mundane auto parts like lead-acid batteries and aluminum cylinder heads. Finally, lead acid batteries are valuable, at least in bulk because lead is easily recyclable and reusable, over and over. So, ease of recovery, cost of recovery, and market demand are three major factors in determining what automotive components get recycled and how much a business can stand to make.
Deciding to Scrap and Recycle
Some car parts may be cleaned up or repaired and reused. Fuel injectors and radiators are two examples of those parts, as are catalytic converters. Sometimes a car that is only a few years old has a catalytic converter with years of service left in it. These pieces can be reclaimed from a wrecked car, for example, and resold. It can often take an excessive amount of time before a vehicle that needs that exact part comes to your shop. Companies that would buy and reuse your catalytic converters take this into account.
A new catalytic converter might retail for $1600 while you may be able to get $1000 for putting it on a new car as a replacement, or $500 for the value of the platinum and palladium inside that converter. Collecting a pallet or two of used catalytic converters and selling them in bulk, for the precious metals, is a pretty good way for a business to make extra cash.
Demand and Price Drive the Scrap Metal Recycling Industry
Cars contain many parts worth salvaging for the valuable metals they contain, with catalytic converters leading the field in terms of value in the scrap metal recycling market. Belanger Converter Recycling recycles the PGMs inside catalytic converters by hedging the metals on behalf of commercial clients or by “decanning” the cores and selling them for further processing. We also have a mobile app, Group Catalyst, that helps individuals and business owners find the market value of their parts. If you have old catalytic converters to scrap and recycle in bulk, contact us to learn more about our services.
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