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As production prices for metal products continues to grow, so has the demand for scrap metal. In the past few months, prices for scrap metals have grown enormously. Copper is currently selling for an average of almost $4 per pound. Scrap steel and iron are selling for between $500-$600 per ton. In case you are not impressed please remember that the US exported over $10 Billion dollars worth of scrap steel in 2007. That is why metal recyclers have seen an influx of people with truckloads of scrap metal to sell, hurrying to reap the benefits of the high premium placed on metal to be recycled.
Metal recycling is a lucrative, and environmentally conscious enterprise. Not only is metal recycling profitable both for the recycler and the consumer, both of who profit from reusing existing metal, but the recycling of metal decreases the demand for new metal production, in turn reducing the greenhouse gases that are expelled during production, and the waste that finds its way back to the environment as a result of metal production.
Base metals are not, however, the only metals that are bringing high prices in the recycling metal market. Gold and platinum are also hot commodities, as their values are on a six month climb that have seen them reach historic highs. For those who have gold and platinum to sell, now is the time to turn a hefty profit from these metals.
While most people think of old gold and platinum jewelry, gold dental scrap, and other common gold and platinum items when they think of recycling gold and platinum, these are not the only gold and platinum items that are viable for recycling.
Many people do not realize that there are a number of commonly used household, electronic, and automotive items that contain gold and platinum within. These items are becoming more and more commonly recycled, and therefore more and more profitable for those who have them to sell to recyclers.
Gold and platinum are often used in electronics manufacture. These metals, which are impervious to corrosion, are used to ensure that electronics are not harmed by humidity or accidental exposure to trace amounts of water. Gold and platinum are therefore found in many of the common electronic devices that most people use everyday.
The personal computer (PC) or laptop/notebook computer is one of the common electronic items that contain gold and/or platinum in their circuitry. While gold is used most commonly in these items, some also contain platinum in their circuit boards. Often, the gold and/or platinum that is used in these items is worth more by recycling it than the items themselves are worth. An outdated PC or laptop/notebook computer is worth little either to the owner or someone who builds computers, but the gold and/or platinum contained within them is worth a significant amount to recyclers. It is unfortunate that for years, many of these old computers have either languished in closets or ended up in landfills, despite the fact that they contain gold and/or platinum that could easily be harvested from them and returned to the gold and platinum markets.
Another common electronic device that contains gold and/or platinum is the cell phone. Among the most disposable electronic devices in production, and among the most common, the cell phone uses gold and/or platinum in its circuitry that is, like that contained in computers, often more valuable than the cell phone itself once the cell phone has outlived its usefulness. Also like computers, many of these outdated cell phones are lost to the recycling market, stuck in junk drawers or closets because their owners do not know that not only can they easily be recycled, but that recycling them can be profitable, as well. The gold and/or platinum that is contained within cell phones is not only easily recyclable, but putting this gold and/or platinum back on the market, where it can be used in further cell phone production, means that less gold and platinum needs to be mined to keep up with cell phone production.
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