Australians are not the best at recycling metal. Of the 48 million tonnes of metal waste produced between 2006 and 2007, only 52% was recycled. By recycling metal, you can not only help save the environment by reusing valuable resources, but you can also recoup some of the expenses that went into purchasing the metal in the first place. When recycling scrap metal, you can easily maximize the value of the copper by cleaning it before taking it to the scrap yard.

There are a number of common items around your house, or in a junkyard that could earn you money if you are enterprising, and willing to put in the work. Most of these items can be sold to scrap metal buyers, who specialize in re-selling these items to wholesale dealers. If you're thinking about entering the scrap metal business for profit, here are some of the important things to know about how scrap metal is defined, and what scrap metal buyers are looking to buy from you.

Recycling scrap metals has long been understood to be beneficial to the environment, indeed, many countries have, for many decades, established infrastructure to allow this. As metal is a material that is used in numerous construction projects, if people and businesses did not recycle, it would have severely depleted the natural components required to make these materials. This article looks at some of the benefits to the environment gained by recycling scrap metal.