An old air conditioner might look like a worthless pile of sheet metal, plastic, and worn-out machinery. But inside that bulky unit are several materials

Old electric motors have a habit of accumulating. One burned-out motor gets tossed in the corner of a shop. Then another comes out of a

You pull into a scrap yard with a truck full of old copper pipe, aluminum, steel, motors, or construction scrap. The material gets weighed. You

You have an old pile of steel sitting behind the garage. It has been rained on for years. The surface is orange, flaky, and ugly

An old air conditioner can look like nothing more than a heavy piece of equipment you need to get rid of. To a scrap recycler,

If you have a pile of old electrical wire, the temptation is obvious. Copper is valuable. Bare copper is generally worth more than insulated copper

There is more valuable metal hiding in the average house than most people realize. Copper runs behind the walls. Brass is buried inside plumbing fixtures.

You find an old pipe in the garage that looks like copper. A piece of wire has a reddish color underneath the insulation. An old

You have a pile of old metal sitting in your garage, on a jobsite, or behind a shop. Some pieces are magnetic. Some are silver.

Copper is one of the easiest scrap metals to recognize when you're looking at a clean piece of pipe or a bundle of stripped electrical