Can I take a mountain of empty aluminium drink cans to a scrap yard?
Posted by Y2EL@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 50 comments
A while (more than 18 months) ago, the government announced that in 2024 they would be introducing a can and bottle recycling return scheme where you got 5p or 10p back for every recycled can or bottle.
As soon as we heard this, we started collecting cans like total scruffs would.
Well anyway, the scheme never happened and now we have a Mount Etna of cans behind our garage that we are sick of the sight of.
Can these cans be crushed and taken to a scrapyard for money or have we just wasted 2 years collecting worthless garbage?
Camlaa@reddit
When it was introduced in Ireland this year they changed the bar codes so only cans that a deposit was paid on could be claimed. The machines reject cans from NI.
I watched a video a while back of someone scrapping one of them massive construction bags that a tonne of soil or stone is delivered in full of cans. Think they got £11 odds. Essentially yes you have been hoarding cans for no reason lol
Unload_123@reddit
That seems oddly low.
In Scotland Lidl are doing it and I save my cans cos why not. I was use to it from Germany anyway. With about two months worth, which was two of those larger brown paper bags you get for grocery shopping, I got back £4ish.
Sure it's nothing in the grand scheme of things but hey, got my instant coffee for that.
Camlaa@reddit
I’m talking about scrapping them by weight at a scrap yard where each can is worth around 0.18p since that’s the only option for OP in England. That’s a lot less than the 15p per can Lidl is doing!
00ooooo@reddit
If any new introduced scheme works like the European pant/pfand/whatever schemes seem to, you'd only get a payment back on cans and bottles with the right barcodes. In other words, you wouldn't get a deposit back if you didn't pay the deposit in the first place - I imagine your mountain of old cans wouldn't pay out.
ApartPotential6122@reddit
Eh? In Czech Republic (I assume Germany too) you just take empty bottles to supermarket and put them into a machine and it gives you a voucher (about 10p) per bottle.
That’s why you see homeless looking through parks and in bins for empty bottles.
Cwtchmaster@reddit
In Denmark and I think the other Nordic countries those machines look for the symbol showing the deposit was paid and they reject those that don't have it.
nderflow@reddit
Ireland too. They actually look at the barcode. The symbol is there to tell humans that the barcode will be accepted.
eventworker@reddit
Nowadays they use weight and/or shape as well as the barcode, thanks to a Polish organised crime group that printed up thousands of labels, bought thousands of bottles for 2c a piece and then drove round german supermarkets feeding them into machines for 25c each.
Muttywango@reddit
I admire the ingenuity of those Polish gentleman. Contributing missed items to a recycling scheme while sticking it to the man, creating employment too.
blaireau69@reddit
"Can these cans be crushed and taken to a scrapyard for money"
Yes. Ensure they are clean and dry, as well as crushed.
They will probably test the bag all over with a strong magnet, checking for ferrous metals. If there is any magnetic attraction they will probably refuse the whole bag.
Take some form of ID, Drivers License is best.
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FishyCoconutSauce@reddit
Post a picture of the can mountain
CountofAnjou@reddit
This reads like a Beano cover story
BleachChugtidy@reddit
Aluminium is about 50p per kg
ebola1986@reddit
A coke can weighs 14g. A 440ml beer can weighs 18g. If we assume an average 16g, then 1000 cans would be worth £8.
DrakefordsSearchHist@reddit
WTF was OP thinking with this 🤣
Revolutionary-Mode75@reddit
If it was 10p, 1000*0.10 that would be a 100 quid.
ebola1986@reddit
And if it was a tenner it'd be 100k, but it ain't, so it ain't
ChannelLumpy7453@reddit
Trotters Independent Traders.
carl84@reddit
Less cost efficient than signing on the dole
Bad_UsernameJoke94@reddit
Enough for another multipack!
JustAMan1234567@reddit
I'd guess that unless you have 100s of lbs in weight of cans a scrapyard wouldn't be interested. A "mountain of aluminium cans" is probably not anywhere as much as you think it is when melted down.
DiDiPLF@reddit
The ones I know do take small amounts of non ferrous metal. Used to work in one in a rough area, small weights were common. My local metal merchant also does a charity bit where you take metal to weigh-in for RNLB and they are happy to do small weights.
Optimal_Collection77@reddit
Kg. We use the metric system
Nedonomicon@reddit
Melt them down and weigh them in at the scrapyard
RedCashmereSquirrel@reddit
If they won't accept them, you could always take one of the doors off your car and stack them up in its place like Jeremy Clarkson did.
yourmomsajoke@reddit
Smells like the 80s in here 😂
Just take them to the skips or put them in a euro recycling bin at sainsburys or tesco or whatever.
Sidebottle@reddit
Just crush them and put them in your recycling bin? Imagine accruing 1000 cans in your back garden because you thought it might be worth £50.
Muttywango@reddit
Life is hard. Why throw away something of potential value if you have sufficient space to store it and can benefit financially?
Lower_Possession_697@reddit
Because life is also short.
uninsuredpidgeon@reddit
It's literally the longest thing anyone has ever done
Sidebottle@reddit
If life was that hard you would be amassing that many aluminum drink cans.
DaveBeBad@reddit
If you walk around any town centre or similar, you’ll find plenty of drinks cans just discarded. OP could be doing a selective litter pick…
DrakefordsSearchHist@reddit
Because it looks scruffy as fuck and in OPs case it sounds like they don't have space to store them.
Shitelark@reddit
Learn to smelt them down and make a guitar.
or use coffee beans.
Honest_Chain4675@reddit
Yes take them to the scraped it's aluminium he will take it off you for a price (crush them all first as thire is no point in transporting air
Ok_Cow_3431@reddit
This is really peak reddit
1AlanM@reddit
Does your local Lidl, Sainsbury’s or M&S have a collection machine that rewards you for returning cans.
There may be machines in other stores too, but these are the ones I’ve seen locally to me.
IcyMushroom2639@reddit
It's about 13 quid a ton
Educational_Test4119@reddit
Melt them down.
AlligatorInMyRectum@reddit
Been meaning to get the old blast furnace going.
Educational_Test4119@reddit
Aluminium melts at 600 degrees...
Muttywango@reddit
My crucible should be able to deal with that.
macxjs@reddit
Mine's being used for snooker
wardyms@reddit
Your local tip (recycling centre) will have an area for these.
lungbong@reddit
When I went to New York I got talking to a chap that collected all the cans from bins or on the streets, he said he needed 1000s and 1000s of cans to make $100.
Cheap_Answer5746@reddit
Yes take them down. Ignore the naysayers and don't make this mistake again 🤣
misterbooger2@reddit
Put them in the recycling you tight bastard and maybe lay off the pop 😉
eventworker@reddit
That plan was a deposit return scheme, which would only pay out on cans that had the correct barcode (and corresponding bottle shape/weight), so you wouldn't have got the money for any cans you wouldn't have paid the deposit on.
Yep, but you'll be getting somewhere around 0.2 p per can, depending on current aluminum prices.
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