Guides
Scrap metal guides for Adelaide.
How metal gets graded, what it pays, and how to get more for the same load. Written by the yard that weighs it.
How it works
How weighing works, and how to know you are getting a fair one
What a certified scale means, what a docket should show, and the questions worth asking at any yard. How to know you got weighed fairly.
Read it →Trade
Farm clean-ups: the scrap pile behind every shed
What is usually in a farm scrap heap, what is worth separating, and the things that need a call before anyone touches them.
Read it →What we buy
Stainless steel: what it pays and why it is less than you expect
How to tell stainless from plated steel, the grades that matter, and where the worthwhile quantities come from. Plus what it pays in Adelaide.
Read it →What we buy
Electric motors, alternators and starters: why they beat steel
What is inside them, why they are worth more than their steel weight, and whether pulling them apart is worth your time.
Read it →Trade
Commercial kitchen strip-outs: what the metal is worth
The single best source of scrap stainless there is, plus the copper and motors that come with it. What a kitchen strip-out is worth in Adelaide.
Read it →What we buy
Copper pipe or copper wire: which is worth more?
Copper pipe and copper wire are the same metal and not the same price. What decides which grade yours lands in, and what each one pays.
Read it →What we buy
Transformers and switchboards: the copper nobody sees
Why transformers and switchboards are worth well above their steel weight, and the ones that need a phone call before anyone moves them.
Read it →Trade
Building site clean-ups: what goes in the skip and what should not
The metal that gets buried in skips every week, how to run a site so it does not, and when to ring instead of ordering another bin.
Read it →What we buy
Alloy wheels and aluminium: what pays and what does not
Why alloy wheels beat general aluminium, how to tell cast from extruded, and why aluminium disappoints people by weight.
Read it →What we buy
Are old car batteries worth anything?
What a lead acid battery is worth at the scrap yard, why they must never go in the wheelie bin, and what to do with the other battery types.
Read it →What we buy
Renovating? Here's what to keep out of the skip
Kitchen, bathroom and shed clear-outs throw away more metal value than anything else. What to set aside before the skip arrives.
Read it →How it works
What actually happens to your scrap after we weigh it
Where it goes, what it gets turned into, why metal recycling is different to everything else, and how the price you get is set.
Read it →Trade
Scrap metal for tradies: stop paying to throw away money
What sparkies, plumbers, builders and mechanics are binning every week, what a standing pickup looks like, and the maths over a year.
Read it →How it works
How to sort a load so you get paid more
Why a mixed bin costs you money, the four piles that do most of the work, and where sorting stops being worth your time.
Read it →What we buy
What scrap metal is actually worth money (and what isn't)
Where the value really sits in a mixed load, the things people throw out that shouldn't be, and the stuff that isn't worth the trip.
Read it →Copper
Scrap copper prices in Adelaide, and how copper gets graded
What scrap copper pays per kg in Adelaide, and how bare bright, number one, number two and PVC wire are graded before they are weighed.
Read it →Prices
Scrap metal prices in Adelaide: what each metal actually pays
Indicative Adelaide scrap metal prices per kg for copper, brass, aluminium, stainless, lead, motors and steel, plus the grade names SA yards use.
Read it →SA law
South Australia's new scrap metal laws, and what they mean for you
The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2025 will ban cash payment for scrap metal in South Australia and make ID compulsory. Here is what changes, and what applies today.
Read it →Pickup
How free scrap metal pickup works in Adelaide
What free scrap metal collection in Adelaide involves, what size load is worth a pickup, and what to have ready before the truck arrives.
Read it →What it is worth
What your old hot water system and air conditioner are worth as scrap
What the copper inside an old hot water system, air conditioner or pool pump is worth in Adelaide, and why paying someone to remove it is the wrong move.
Read it →Got a load and want a number?
Tell us roughly what you have and we will give you a price over the phone. Pickup across Adelaide's north-east is free.
Call 0435 805 124