Wire Recycling

The market for wire recycling has grown manifold over the last few years. A large number of recycling companies will buy your old copper wire and send it for refining or smelting.

Two of the biggest advantages of recycling wire are that lesser quantity of new material is required for manufacturing and also the amount of copper dumped into landfills is reduced drastically.

What happens to the wire insulation

Some old copper wires are covered in insulation. Such wires cannot be processed directly for recycling. The insulation must be removed first. This is usually done by following a mechanical process where the insulation strip is cut and separated from the copper wire. Some other professional recyclers use steel rollers to split the insulation.

What happens during wire recycling

While various recycling companies may adopt different methods of recycling wire, the basic objective remains the same – separate the metal wires from the rubber/plastic casing and extract the precious metals. After the recycling process is completed, you get concentrated copper, brass and steel fine powder.

Can you do it yourself?

Yes, it’s possible to do your own recycling of wire using a hand stripper. However, it can be very time consuming. Hence, it may be easier for you to send your unwanted wires to the professional recyclers.

Advantages of recycling wires

• You get paid.

• It helps keep the environment safe.

• It’s easy to do and you can even do it yourself.

If you chose a professional recycler for recycling your wire, make sure you chose a company which has a clean center with no hazards in the work environment.

When sending your wire for recycling, one thing you can do is to separate the high voltage electric wires from the low voltage communication wires, so that the recyclers would find it easy to grade and weigh each type of wire, be it aluminum or copper.

Copper Wire Recycling

Copper is undoubtedly the most recycled wire material as it is used in a lot of places, ranging from air conditioning to household wires. That is primarily because it is a very good conductor of electricity.

Recycling of copper wires is financially viable and attractive because you can get paid for it (check with your local recycling program). Copper is always in demand and you can get a scrap price for copper up to even $3-4 per pound.

#1 grade copper wires contain no metallic containments and are the most valuable insulated copper wire. #2 grade copper wires contain containments like plating, solder and brass connectors. These containments usually lower the value of the recyclable and should be removed before recycling the wire if possible. In fact, if you can remove these containments, your copper wire can be transformed from grade #2 to grade #1 and may fetch you a much higher price.

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