Make Money With Aluminum Recycling

Aluminum prices are getting higher due to the increasing demand for it. For example, China’s new policy of replacing wood with aluminum castings to reduce construction waste has been a big boon to aluminum. Also, aluminum is being recognized as a greener solution as compared to other metals.

What Are The Uses Of Aluminum

Aluminum is a non-ferrous metal that has a huge number of uses. It is used in many products. It is used in construction like a replacement for metal sheets. It is used in transportation to manufacture very light vehicles. In fact, it is a favorite metal of many super car makers.

It is in your household. Many appliances are made from it. You may not see it, but many of the parts of your appliances are made from it. Your mobile phones for example have aluminum casings.

Simply go to your kitchen and you would see many kitchen utensils made from aluminum. From aluminum pots to spoon and forks made from aluminum, your kitchen could be a veritable treasure throve of aluminum.

What Makes Aluminum Ideal For Recycling

Perhaps one of the best things about aluminum is that it is soft enough to be easily melted. It does not take a long while for it to be melted. This means less cost associated to melting as well as less time taken as well for melting.

Another good thing about aluminum is that it does not deteriorate fast. It can be recycled over and over without it losing much of its quality. How important is this? For example we could use steel as an example.

Steel rusts fast especially when it is exposed to the elements like water. If we recycled steel, for each recycling we do with it, we lose on the quality. Aluminum does not rust, we may store it for a long time but we can be reliably sure we would get the same amount of aluminum no matter how old it is.

Aluminum From Soda Cans

One of the best sources of aluminum would be the aluminum soda cans most people throw away after drinking their soda. It is in fact collected for recycling and is one of the most successful recycling stories.

This is due to as said before, aluminum does not degrade much in quality even if you recycle it over and over. This is why it is one of the best stories of circular recycling. One sad fact about aluminum soda cans is that salvagers are being paid so little money to salvage soda cans.

For example, in many developing countries there are not much effective policies of segregating garbage according to its recyclability. Soda cans mostly end up in the garbage pile where they get contaminated.

As a result, recycling them for small scale use becomes cost and time prohibitive because of the hard task of removing contaminants from them. As a result, only the big time recyclers are able to profit from recycling soda cans.

Easiest Way To Collect Aluminum Cans And Other Aluminum Scrap

You could try to collect aluminum soda cans and other aluminum junk on your own but it would be time consuming. Another question you should ask yourself is: “Where would I get a large enough and reliable source of scrap aluminum for continuous processing?”

The obvious way to collect a large amount of them is to pay salvagers. The cost of used aluminum soda cans and junk aluminum is cheap anyway. This is where your skills as a bargainer is well used.

The better you can pay lower prices for scrap aluminum the better. This might entail finding people and salvagers who do not give much thought about the price of aluminum and consider it worthless.

Where To Collect Aluminum

If you plan to make a business out of salvaging aluminum, there are many products that have a high aluminum content that you can salvage:

Cans and packaging:

As said before, one of the best source of scrap aluminum would be spent aluminum beer, soda and food cans. Everyone drinks soft drinks and most people buy them in aluminum cans. You can check out restaurants to see if they collect spent aluminum soda and food cans.

You could ask them to wash the used aluminum soda and food cans before storing them. This is to prevent bits of soda and food from sticking to the cans. You can make them do this by paying a higher price for clean scrap aluminum cans.

Besides soda and food aluminum cans, you could also collect the restaurant’s used aluminum foil and takeaway food containers. These include aluminum trays used as food containers as well as foils used to wrap food.

Aluminum could also be found in other products besides food packaging. Aerosol cans used to hold deodorant sprays and cleaning sprays also contain aluminum. A note of caution though, these products can be potentially flammable. So, safe handling of these containers is required.

Car Parts:

Since aluminum is very light yet very strong, it is increasingly being used to manufacture car parts such as wheels, cylinders, engines, gearboxes and car bodies. Many car manufacturers are favoring aluminum over traditional steel and iron.

This is because with aluminum being light in weight, they can manufacture cars that are faster. In fact, aluminum bodies are one of the factors that make supercars extremely fast. This is the reason why you could find a lot of aluminum in scrap supercars.

But not only in supercars, even ordinary cars have aluminum in them. It is reported that from 2017 to 2019, aluminum content in cars have risen by 20%. As of 2020, the aluminum content of the average car has risen by another 12%.

This means that you can find a lot of aluminum scrap from car junkyards and from abandoned and rusting cars by the sides of roads. If a metal part of a car is not yet rusting, chances are it has aluminum content in it.

Electronics:

Electronics such computers, gaming consoles, radios, stereos and even iPods can contain aluminum. This is because electronics manufacturers know that aluminum is a great insulator. Electronics produce a lot of heat and electricity and aluminum is a good insulator for these.

Aluminum also looks nice as compared to other metals. It is also resistant to scratching. It is also very light. These qualities make it very much sought after as a material for many high end electronics especially mobile phones.

There are many electronics who salvage electronics mainly for their metal content like gold. What many of them do not know is that aluminum should also be a part of their salvaging efforts as it can pay well.

Kitchen:

The kitchen is as said before, a treasure throve for aluminum. Kitchen utensils such as baking trays, cookware and cutlery can be sources of aluminum especially the old ones. Even the very spoons, forks and dishes you use can be composed of aluminum.

Bike Frames:

Bike frames and other bicycle parts are mostly made up of aluminum. This is because like their use in cars, aluminum bicycle bodies make the bicycle lighter and therefore faster when used.

In China alone, there are many millions of bicycles being abandoned as the Chinese people start buying cars because they now can afford them. There is a huge potential for these bicycles to be salvaged for their aluminum content.

Scrap Electrical Wiring:

Aluminum is a better conductor than copper. This is the reason why it is used to wire together power grids. This includes overhead power transmission line and local power distribution lines. It is also used as power wiring for some aircrafts.

This is why if you work in electrical power installation, it is best you keep all the scrap aluminum wires as cumulatively, they have a lot of value. This is also the reason why there are criminals who steal electrical wires from transmission poles.

Door And Window Frames:

Many window of today are made from aluminum frames. The aluminum screen door that is used to keep insects away have become ubiquitous that they have become a part of many household.

Many homeowners who upgrade their houses usually also change their worn out aluminum windows and screen doors for a better one. Usually they give them away for free, not realizing their value once they have been recycled.

Aluminum Melting Furnace

Now that we have discussed the various ways of sourcing out scrap aluminum, let us discuss the way to process it. We need a way to reshape the aluminum. This is our first problem. To reshape aluminum, we need a melting furnace.

This is no big problem for small scale aluminum recycling businesses especially those who are home based. In Amazon, you could buy a complete modern melting furnace for as low as $300.

All you need to do is use the keyword “aluminum melting furnace” or simply “melting furnace”. The prices are affordable. I have seen models that range from $300 to $500 that can melt 3 to 6 kg worth of metal.

You can also create your own furnace. There are plenty of videos in YouTube that teaches how to make your own furnace. One even advertises that you could make one for about $20. Simply type the search keyword “DIY furnaces” in YouTube and these videos will appear.

Cutting Aluminum Into Small Pieces

Not all junk aluminum would fit in your furnace especially if you have just a small furnace. The obvious way to solve this problem is to cut up your junk aluminum into smaller pieces that would fit in your furnace.

Another obvious advantage of cutting up your aluminum scrap into smaller pieces is that smaller pieces melt faster than bigger pieces. Smaller pieces let you save on time and cost during the melting process.

The good news is that cutting aluminum is like cutting wood. This means that it is relatively easier to cut as against other metals like steel. You can use a normal steel saw or an electrical one like a circular saw.

Aluminum soda cans can be cut using ordinary paper cutter or scissors. This is also the reason why aluminum soda cans are used for arts and crafts projects. A note of warning though, cut aluminum is still metal and could cut you if you are not careful.

There are those that use shredding machines to make their work easier in cutting up aluminum cans into smaller pieces. The good news is that aluminum cans are soft enough not to cause damage to these machines.

It is also possible to grind aluminum foil into a fine powder using an ordinary food blender. Simply cut up the aluminum foil using your hands or by a scissor and put these pieces into a blender where they would be turned into fine powder.

Once again, aluminum foil is soft enough not to cause damage to the food blender. Just make sure that you are using the food blender just to make aluminum into powder and nothing else. Aluminum that has been turned to powder is still toxic when inhaled or ingested.

Shape Forming Mold

Once you have cut up the aluminum and melted it up, the next thing you need is a mold. You can have a mold that looks like anything. It can be as simple as the shape of a rectangular bar or a more elaborately shaped mold that could look like a figurine.

If you are selling aluminum by itself, then the shape of your mold is of a secondary concern. Your main concern is the quality of the aluminum you have melted. If you are an artist and you are selling art like figurines, toys and decorations, then it is important that your mold is of high quality.

This is because the beauty of your aluminum art is primarily your selling point while the aluminum quality would be secondary.

Selling Aluminum Bars And Art

You can sell your aluminum bars by the bulk to metal dealers. You can search online for metal dealers easily. For example, if you Google the search keywords “Where to sell my aluminum bars” you would easily be taken to articles and online buyers of aluminum bars.

You can also sell both aluminum bars as well as art made of aluminum online using your own website or thru the big e-commerce stores like Amazon and E-Bay. Even in Etsy I found people selling aluminum bars and art.

Aluminum Jewelry

Perhaps in terms of recycling aluminum, your best profits could be made by selling aluminum jewelry. There are many reasons why aluminum jewelry is much sought after. Perhaps the greatest reason would be because it does not lose its luster.

As discussed before, there are many metals that corrode when exposed to the elements like air and water. Aluminum on the other hand retains its luster. It is also scratch resistant and harder than most metals used as jewelry.

This makes wearing aluminum as a jewelry ideal for everyday use. Aluminum also has a modern look as compared to other metal jewelry like gold. They can also be easily mistaken for expensive alloy jewelry.

Conclusion

Most people do not give much importance to aluminum although this metal is a significant part of people’s lives. It’s in our kitchen, our electronics, our cars, it’s in the food containers we use, and so on.

It’s accessibility as a scrap, it’s low melting point, and the easy way we can fashion it into new shapes makes it a very good recycling material. It also does not lose much of its quality even when recycled over and over again.

You could money selling scrap aluminum. You could also melt it and sell it in bar form. Lastly you could sell it as art where you stand to make a good profit on a per weight basis. This is especially true if you sell it as jewelry.

You might also like to read the article: Money from Scrap Wood.