Factory machinery is recycled through a planned factory dismantling process. Each machine is checked, made safe, cut down and sorted into separate metals. It then goes to a recycling yard, where it is graded, processed and melted into new products. Done properly, most of the weight in a typical lathe, press, conveyor or tank goes back into the supply chain instead of landfill.
If you’re closing a workshop, upgrading a production line or moving premises, you’ll face the same question sooner or later. What do you do with old factory equipment that is too big, too heavy or too outdated to keep? This guide walks through each step. It covers what to prepare, which metals you can expect to recover, and the mistakes that cost Melbourne businesses time and money.
We’ve written it for owners and site managers of small and medium businesses. You want the job done safely, and you want fair value for what leaves the floor. The guide is built around the questions businesses ask us most when they call about clearing out old plant. We also name the Victorian rules that apply, so you know where your duties start and finish.
How factory machinery is recycled in plain terms
From the outside, recycling industrial machinery can look complicated. In practice, it follows the same order on almost every site. Once you know that order, planning your own job gets much easier.
The four main stages: assess, make safe, dismantle, sort and process
Assess. Someone walks the site and lists every machine. They work out what each one is made of, roughly what it weighs and how it can be reached. This is also when you decide what gets sold and what gets scrapped.
Make safe. Power, air and stored energy are cut off and locked out. Fluids and hazardous parts are found and removed, so cutting can start without putting anyone at risk.
Dismantle. Machines are unbolted, cut or broken into pieces small enough to lift, load and move. Larger frames are usually cut on site.
Sort and process. Steel goes in one pile, copper in another and aluminium in a third. Each grade is weighed. It is then sent on for shredding, shearing or baling before it is melted down.
Why most of a typical machine can go back into new metal products
Industrial equipment is built from heavy, long lasting materials. A milling machine sits on a cast iron base. A conveyor has steel frames and stainless rollers. An electric motor is a steel casing wrapped around copper windings.
All of these metals can be melted and reused without losing their useful properties. That’s why scrap from old plant so often turns up again in new beams, castings, cable and fittings.
Some parts can’t go into a furnace. Rubber belts, plastic guards, glass, insulation and circuit boards are taken out. Each is handled through its own waste stream.
What needs to happen before factory dismantling starts
On these jobs, most delays come from skipped preparation, not from the cutting itself. A typical hold up looks like this. A crew arrives ready to cut, then waits half a day for an electrician or a drum for waste oil. An hour of planning at the start can easily save a full day later.
Auditing equipment and deciding what to resell, reuse or recycle
Walk the floor with a notepad or a spreadsheet and record:
- The machine type, make, model and rough age
- Whether it still works
- Where it sits and how it would be removed
- Any attachments, tooling or spare parts stored nearby
Then put each item into one of three groups. Working machines that other businesses want may be worth selling. Some items, like racking or benches, could be reused at your new site. Everything else is a candidate for scrap.
Be honest with yourself at this stage. A 30 year old guillotine that needs a new hydraulic pump rarely finds a buyer. Waiting for one can hold up your lease handover.
Isolating power, compressed air and stored energy
Before anyone picks up a spanner or a cutting torch, every machine must be cut off from its energy sources. Trades call this “isolation”. In practice it means:
- Having a licensed electrician disconnect and make safe the electrical supply
- Shutting off compressed air lines and letting the air out
- Releasing hydraulic pressure and lowering raised parts such as press rams
- Checking for springs, counterweights and flywheels that can still move
Stored energy is the one people tend to forget. Many hydraulic machines have an accumulator, which is a small tank that holds oil under pressure. A machine can be switched off at the wall and still hold enough pressure to cause a serious injury. That injury can happen the moment a line is cut.
Checking for oils, coolants, refrigerants and other hazardous materials
Industrial plant usually holds more fluid than people expect. Hydraulic presses, injection moulders and CNC machines (computer controlled cutting machines) can carry large volumes of oil and coolant. It sits in sumps, tanks and lines.
Chillers and cool rooms contain refrigerant gas. That gas must be recovered by a licensed refrigeration technician and never let out into the air. Under the Commonwealth Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act 1989, anyone handling these gases needs a refrigerant handling licence. Ask to see it before the work starts.
Older factories may also have asbestos in gaskets, brake linings, pipe lagging or switchboards. Australia banned the use and import of all asbestos from 31 December 2003. If your building or equipment is older than that ban, get an asbestos check done before any cutting.
EPA Victoria provides guidance on how industrial waste must be managed and disposed of, including oils and contaminated material. Under the Environment Protection Act 2017, every business also has a general environmental duty. In simple terms, you must reduce the risk of harm from your waste.
Workplace safety obligations and why WorkSafe Victoria guidance matters
A factory being taken apart is a high risk workplace. Heavy loads, hot work, falling objects and moving vehicles all share the same space. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and the OHS Regulations 2017, the site owner and any contractors share duties to manage those risks.
WorkSafe Victoria publishes guidance on plant, hazardous substances, asbestos and working at height. We recommend reading it before you start. Ask any contractor for their safe work method statements, often called SWMS. These set out, step by step, how they’ll handle cutting and lifting. Everyone on site should also know exactly who is in charge of isolations.
The factory dismantling process, step by step
Once the site is safe and everyone has agreed on the plan, the physical work can begin.
Draining fluids and removing hazardous components
Every sump, tank and line is drained into suitable containers, and filters are removed. Batteries and capacitors come out next. So does anything flagged in the hazardous materials check, and it’s all set aside for specialist disposal.
This step matters for two reasons. Oil soaked scrap counts as contaminated, so it’s worth less at the yard. Leftover oil and coolant can also catch fire when a cutting torch hits it, which is a real risk on these jobs.
Cutting and breaking down large machines on site
Large machines rarely fit through a roller door in one piece. Crews use gas (oxy) cutting, plasma cutters, saws and hydraulic shears. These break frames into sections they can handle.
Where they can, they unbolt parts first. A motor, gearbox or control cabinet removed whole is far easier to sort than one cut in half.
Heavy bases and castings may need forklifts, gantries or a crane truck to lift. The cutting is planned so that pieces fall safely and land where they can be picked up.
Separating ferrous and non ferrous metals as you go
This is where much of the value is won or lost. Ferrous metals contain iron and stick to a magnet. That covers mild steel, cast iron and most structural sections.
Non ferrous metals contain little or no iron. They include copper, aluminium, brass and most stainless steel. They generally fetch a higher price per kilogram.
Set up separate bins or stillages (metal cages a forklift can move) on the floor before any cutting starts. As each machine comes apart, copper cable goes into one bin, aluminium covers into another and brass fittings into a third. Sorting during the job is much quicker than picking through a mixed pile afterwards.
Loading, weighing and transport to the recycling yard
Sorted material is loaded into bins, skips or straight onto trucks. Each grade is weighed, either on site or over the yard weighbridge. A weighbridge is a large scale that weighs the whole truck. The weight and grade are then recorded.
Ask how weighing will be handled before collection day, so payment holds no surprises.
What metals come out of factory machinery
When you know what’s inside your equipment, it’s easier to sort it properly. It also helps you understand what your old machinery is likely to be worth as scrap.
Common machine components and the metals they contain
Machine component
Main metal
Notes
Lathe beds, mill bases, press frames
Cast iron
Heavy and dense. See our iron collection page for how we handle it
Structural frames, guarding, pallet racking
Steel
Often makes up the bulk of the weight on a job
Motor windings, power cabling, busbars
Copper
High value, so keep it separate
Motor housings, extrusion frames, covers
Aluminium
Light, often painted or anodised
Valves, fittings, bushes, fixtures
Brass
Small items that add up
Tanks, vats, conveyors, food grade benches
Stainless steel
Common in food and pharmaceutical plants
Why clean, sorted metal is worth more than mixed loads
A recycling yard has to process whatever turns up. Picture a bin holding copper cable tangled with steel offcuts, plastic trunking and oily rags. The yard has two choices. It can sort the load by hand, or grade the whole lot at the lower value. Clean material of a single grade skips that step, so it’s usually worth more.
Attachments work the same way. Copper cable with the insulation still on is graded differently from stripped copper. A brass valve with a steel handle attached isn’t clean brass. A little extra preparation often makes a noticeable difference to the final payment.
What happens to the metal at the recycling yard
Sorting and grading by metal type
When material arrives, it’s checked and graded. Staff use magnets, visual checks and alloy testing equipment to confirm what each load contains. Grades are based on metal type, purity and how much contamination is present.
Shredding, shearing and baling
Bulky items are cut down to a size that suits the next step. Heavy steel is sheared into short lengths. Lighter material such as sheet steel and aluminium may be shredded or baled. Baling means pressing it into dense blocks that are easier to store and ship.
Melting and remanufacture into new products
Processed scrap heads to steelworks, foundries and smelters. There it’s melted, refined and cast or rolled into new material. The steel from your old racking could end up as reinforcing bar. Copper from motor windings can be drawn into new wire.
That cycle can repeat again and again. It’s why recycling old manufacturing equipment makes sense, both on the ground and for the environment.
Real situations we see with Melbourne businesses
No two sites are the same. The examples below are composites, built from the kinds of jobs Melbourne businesses most often ask us about. We’ve left out client details on purpose. The lessons in each one are the ones that keep coming up from site to site.
A small fabrication workshop closing down
The owner is retiring and the lease ends in six weeks. The workshop holds a press brake, a guillotine, two welders, steel stock and offcut bins. The welders and some hand tools sell privately.
The press brake and guillotine are too old to resell. They’re drained, cut on site and taken as steel and cast iron. The offcut bins are sorted into mild steel and stainless before collection. The owner hands the keys back on time with a clear floor.
The lesson here is timing. Six weeks sounds like plenty, but private sales eat into it fast, so book the scrap side early.
A food processing plant replacing stainless steel lines
This plant is upgrading its production line during a planned shutdown. The old stainless conveyors, hoppers and tanks must be out in a short window so the installers can start.
Because the old line is mostly stainless, the plant keeps it apart from the mild steel supports and motor housings. Removal is scheduled to the hour, and the stainless is graded as its own load.
A printing business relocating and leaving old presses behind
A printer is moving to a smaller site and switching to digital equipment. The old offset presses are heavy and complex. They also hold rollers, inks and lubricants.
Fluids and rubber rollers come out first. Then the cast iron frames, steel side plates, copper wiring and aluminium parts are separated. The landlord’s make good conditions are met, meaning the space goes back in its original state. The business also avoids paying to store machines it no longer needs.
A warehouse clearing old racking, cages and forklifts
A logistics operator is reconfiguring a warehouse. The old pallet racking, wire cages and two retired forklifts need to go.
The racking is unbolted rather than cut, which is faster and cleaner. Forklift batteries are removed and handled separately. The steel is collected in staged loads, so the warehouse keeps running through the changeover.
Practical tips to get more value from machinery recycling
A checklist to work through before collection
- List equipment early. A full inventory lets your recycler plan labour, cutting gear and trucks.
- Keep copper cabling separate. Coil it and store it well away from steel scrap.
- Remove non metal waste. Pull out timber, cardboard, plastic and general rubbish before the crew turns up.
- Record machine makes and models. This helps identify alloys and spot anything worth reselling.
- Plan access for trucks. Check gate widths, overhead clearance, floor load limits and where a truck can park.
- Agree on weighing before collection. Confirm whether material will be weighed on site or at the yard, and how grades will be recorded.
When it makes sense to sell working machines rather than scrap them
Some machines are worth more to another business than they are as scrap. That’s usually the case if a machine runs well, comes from a known brand and still has parts support. CNC machines, compressors, forklifts and late model welders often fall into this group. Very old, worn, outdated or damaged equipment is usually better recycled.
Selling takes time, so weigh what you might earn against your deadline. On a tight lease exit, scrapping is often the more practical choice.
Common mistakes that slow down a factory dismantling project
Leaving hazardous fluids in machines
Undrained oil and coolant create a fire risk during cutting. They also contaminate the scrap and can breach environmental rules if they leak. Drain everything first and keep records of how the waste was disposed of. EPA Victoria can ask you to show where it went.
Mixing contaminated material with clean metal
One oily or rubbish filled bin can drag down the grade of an otherwise clean load. Keep contaminated items apart, and don’t let general waste creep into the scrap bins.
Underestimating access, lifting and timing needs
Some machines were installed before a wall went up. On other sites, the only roller door is too low for a crane truck. Check access early, and allow for weekends, shift changes and handover deadlines too. In our view, a rushed job at the end of a lease is exactly when corners get cut and people get hurt.
Frequently asked questions
Can all factory machinery be recycled?
Most of the metal can be recycled, including steel, cast iron, copper, aluminium, brass and stainless steel. Plastics, rubber, glass, insulation and electronics are separated and handled through different waste streams. If a machine still works, consider selling or reusing it before you recycle it.
Do oils and coolants need to be removed before machinery is recycled?
Yes. Hydraulic oil, coolant and lubricants should be drained before scrap goes to a recycling yard. This reduces contamination, environmental risk and the chance of a fire during cutting. Ask your recycler what preparation they expect before collection.
How long does factory dismantling take?
It depends on the number and size of the machines, site access and the lifting gear needed. It also depends on whether services are already isolated. A single workshop is usually quicker than a full production floor. A site walkthrough gives you a realistic timeframe for your own job.
Will my business be paid for scrap machinery?
Scrap has value. What you’re paid depends on the type of material, its weight, how clean it is and current market prices. Sorted copper and stainless steel are usually worth more than mixed loads. Get in touch with our team for an assessment based on your equipment and today’s market.
What happens to control panels, motors and wiring?
Motors contain copper windings and steel casings, and both are recovered. Cabling is stripped or processed to recover the copper. Circuit boards and electronics are separated out for specialist electronic waste handling.
Who is responsible for safety during a factory dismantling job?
Site owners and contractors share duties under Victorian workplace safety law, including the OHS Regulations 2017. Services must be isolated and hazardous materials identified before any work starts. WorkSafe Victoria publishes guidance on plant, hazardous substances and asbestos, and it’s well worth reading before you begin.
Planning your factory dismantling project
A successful project comes down to a handful of clear steps. Audit your equipment and decide what to sell, reuse or recycle. Isolate power, air and stored energy. Drain fluids and deal with any hazardous materials. Cut and dismantle safely, separating ferrous and non ferrous metals as you go. Then agree on weighing and transport so payment is clear and fair.
You might be winding down a small workshop or clearing an entire production floor. Either way, starting early gives you far more control over cost, safety and timing. If you’d like a practical plan for your site, talk to our metal recycling team at Johny Metal Recycling. We’ll arrange a site assessment and walk through your equipment with you. Then we’ll give you a clear plan for getting it out of the building and back into use.
Published: October 2026, by Johny Metal Recycling