A lot of first-time scrap sellers walk away from the yard feeling like they got a fair deal — and they did, technically. But if they’d spent an hour preparing their load before showing up, they’d have walked away with noticeably more cash. The material was the same. The effort was minimal. The difference was just knowing what to do beforehand.
Preparation isn’t complicated. It’s mostly sorting, a bit of stripping, and removing things that don’t belong. Here’s how to do it properly, based on how things are assessed at Johnny Metal Recycling (JMR), a licensed scrap buyer based in Braeside, Melbourne.
Start by Figuring Out What You’ve Got
Before you can sort anything, you need to know what you’re sorting. The good news is that identifying common scrap metals doesn’t require any expertise — just two basic checks.
First, grab a magnet. If it sticks, the metal contains iron, so you’re dealing with steel or cast iron. If it doesn’t stick, you’ve got something more valuable — copper, aluminium, brass, lead, or stainless steel. That one test does most of the work.
Second, look at the colour. Copper has a distinctive reddish-orange tint (or goes green when it oxidises). Brass is more yellow-gold and heavier than it looks. Aluminium is light grey and genuinely light — you can usually feel the difference immediately. Lead is dark and almost bluish, and it’s surprisingly heavy for its size. Stainless steel is bright silver and won’t stick to a magnet, or will only stick weakly.
If you’re still not sure about something, call JMR on 0449 894 456 before you spend time sorting it into the wrong pile.
Sort Everything Before You Go
This is the step that makes the biggest difference. When metals are mixed together in the same load, the whole thing gets assessed at the rate of whatever’s lowest in value. That means copper wire tossed in with a pile of steel doesn’t get paid out at copper rates — it gets dragged down to steel rates. You’re essentially giving away money.
Set up separate containers — buckets, bins, or bags — and keep these categories apart from each other:
- Clean/stripped copper
- Heavy copper (thick pipe, bus bars)
- Brass (taps, valves, handles, fittings)
- Aluminium (frames, wheels, cans, extrusions)
- Stainless steel
- General steel and iron
- Electric motors
- Batteries
- Radiators
- Electrical cables (separated by whether they’re stripped or not)
You don’t need to be obsessive about it. Even rough sorting — copper in one corner, aluminium in another, steel in a third — is a significant improvement over bringing everything in together. The more precisely you sort, the better your payout.
Strip Your Copper Wire
If there’s one preparation step worth prioritising, it’s this one. Copper wire with the plastic insulation still on it is graded as low-quality mixed copper and pays considerably less than bare, stripped wire. At JMR, clean stripped copper fetches up to $11.80 per kg. Insulated copper might get you $5 to $7 per kg, depending on the grade. On even a modest 10 kg bundle of wire, that gap is $40 to $60 in your pocket.
A basic wire stripper from the hardware store costs less than $20 and makes the job straightforward. For a thicker cable, you can score along the insulation lengthwise with a utility knife and peel it off. Wear gloves — wire ends are sharp, and some insulation materials are irritating to skin.
One thing to be very clear about: don’t burn the insulation off. It’s illegal, it produces toxic fumes, and it actually damages the copper, which reduces its value rather than improving it.
For very large volumes of insulated wire, it’s worth calling JMR first to check whether stripping makes economic sense at current market rates. Sometimes it does; sometimes the yard will factor it in itself.
Remove Anything That Isn’t Metal
Contaminants — rubber seals, plastic clips, glass, concrete, wood, bolts made of a different metal — lower the assessed grade of your load. You don’t need to achieve perfection, but a bit of effort here pays off.
Pull rubber O-rings and plastic washers out of brass fittings. Remove rubber seals and glass from aluminium window frames. Knock concrete and wood attachments off steel beams where you can easily. Take plastic end caps off the copper pipe. If a radiator has plastic end tanks that come off without much effort, remove them.
Again, minor residual contamination is normal and gets factored in during grading. But a load that’s visibly clean and well-presented tends to be assessed more favourably than one that looks like it came straight from a demolition skip.
Bundle Small Pieces Together
Loose offcuts, short lengths, and small items scattered around the bottom of a trailer are awkward to weigh accurately and slow down the whole process. Gather them into buckets or bags by type — copper offcuts together, brass bits together, aluminium pieces together. Crushed aluminium cans take up less space than whole ones if you’ve got a lot of them.
It’s a small thing, but it makes the transaction faster and cleaner for everyone.
Estimate Your Weight
Before you drive over or call to arrange a collection, have a rough sense of how much you’ve got. A standard wheelie bin of loose copper pipe usually weighs somewhere in the range of 20 to 30 kg. A ute tray loaded with steel beams can easily hit 500 kg or more. A car boot of mixed aluminium might be 15 to 25 kg.
This matters for a couple of reasons. First, JMR offers free mobile collection for loads of 500 kg or more — so if you’re close to that threshold, it’s worth knowing before you load everything into a trailer yourself. Second, having an estimate lets you get a meaningful price indication when you call ahead.
A Note on Regulations
Victorian law requires scrap buyers to record seller identification and keep transaction logs. JMR handles all of this as part of normal processing, so you won’t need to do anything unusual — just have ID on you.
If you’re selling a vehicle, cash payment has been illegal in Victoria since May 2018. JMR pays for cars by bank transfer or cheque.
Safety Basics
Nothing here requires special training, but a few common-sense points are worth stating:
Wear gloves. Cut metal edges are sharp, and the habit of gloving up before handling scrap is worth developing early. Wear solid footwear when moving heavy items. Don’t cut into anything you can’t identify — gas cylinders and capacitors can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re dealing with. And don’t attempt to dismantle electric motors or transformers without knowing what you’re doing, as they can store charge even when disconnected from power.
Drop Off or Get It Collected
Once you’ve sorted and prepared your load, you’ve got two options. If you’re under 500 kg or just prefer to come in yourself, JMR’s facility at 1/9 Breaside Drive in Braeside is set up to handle utes, trailers, and small trucks. It’s in Melbourne’s south-east and reasonably accessible from most parts of the metro area.
If you’ve got 500 kg or more, the free mobile collection service covers Melbourne and the surrounding regions. Call 0449 894 456 to book a date.
Either way, payment is on the spot, same day. Once your load is weighed, graded, and a price agreed, you’re paid immediately — no invoices, no waiting on a transfer to clear.
Contact JMR
Ready to prepare scrap metal for recycling? Get in touch with Johnny Metal Recycling for honest advice, current pricing, and a hassle-free process. Call 0449 894 456, email johnnymetalrecycling@gmail.com, or visit us at 1/9 Breaside Drive, Braeside VIC 3195. You can also learn more at jmrecycling.com.au. Whether you have a small load or a large collection, we’re here to help you prepare scrap metal and get the best value for it.
