2 Mistakes To Avoid When Taking Your Construction Company's Copper Wires To A Recycling Plant
Posted on: 15 December 2022
When you run a construction company, you will accumulate a lot of scrap metal at each job site. Especially if your company also performs electrical work, you may have large piles of scrap copper wire laying about that you need to dispose of.
To get rid of the wires, you may have decided to take them to a recycling plant to not only help the environment but also recoup some of the costs of the copper. Before you take your construction company's copper wire to a recycling plant, however, you need to make sure that you do not make the mistakes discussed below.
1. Failing to Separate Wires into Separate Clean and Dirty Piles
One mistake that you should avoid making when getting your company's scrap copper wires ready for recycling is failing to separate them into two piles. When the wires are graded, they will be categorized as clean or dirty.
When copper wires are described as dirty, this means that they still have the insulated coating on them or are attached to other types of metal. Since the recycling center will need to separate and clean dirty wires, you will not get as much per pound. To ensure that you receive a higher rate, you need to remove any other materials from the wires as well as strip the coatings off of them.
2. Burning the Wire to Remove the Plastic- or Rubber-insulated Coating
Since you want to make sure that you receive the highest pay for the copper and know that you need to remove the coating, you may have started thinking about ways to do so efficiently. Because the coating will burn off, you may be thinking about throwing the wires into a large fire to clean them.
However, you should never burn the plastic- or rubber-insulated coating off of wires. Not only does the coating's material release toxic fumes into the air, but doing so is also against the law and you will get a hefty fine if you do so.
Before you take bunches of copper wires to a recycling plan, you need to make sure that they are separated into clean and dirty piles. Because you will receive more money from clean wires, make effort to clean them. However, do not try to burn off the insulation since it is both toxic and against the law to do so. If you would like more information, contact a copper recycling company to speak with someone who can answer your questions.
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