One skip, three metals, one price
The laser skeletons go in the skip behind the building. So do the stainless offcuts, the aluminium trimmings, and anything else that is not wanted. Once a fortnight the scrap merchant collects. The ticket says a weight and a grade, usually mixed or light iron, and a price. Nobody at your end weighed it.
Stainless and aluminium scrap are worth considerably more than mild steel, but only if they are kept separate. Mixed in the skip, they go at the lowest grade.
Why scrap is treated as rubbish
Scrap feels like waste to be cleared rather than material to be sold, so it gets the least attention in the shop. The merchant's ticket is trusted because there is nothing to compare it with.
- Different grades share bins or skips.
- Nobody knows how much scrap each nest produces.
- Collection weights and prices are taken on trust.
- Merchant prices are not compared with market prices or other merchants.
- Scrap income is not linked to material purchases.
What it costs
Lower prices for scrap that could have been sold as a better grade. Weights that nobody can challenge. And a missed signal: if scrap as a share of material is rising, your nesting, remnant use or cutting quality may be slipping, and the scrap numbers are the first place it would show.
The scrap tracking we build
- Each nest's scrap weight is estimated from the sheet weight and the parts cut, by material and grade, from the nest reports your software produces.
- Bins for each grade are labelled, and when a bin is emptied into the skip or stillage for that grade, it is logged with a photo on a tablet.
- Collections are logged with the merchant's ticket, read automatically: grade, weight, price per tonne and total.
- The tool compares each collection with the scrap you expected by grade since the last one, and flags large differences.
- Merchant prices are shown over time next to published market indicators you choose, so you can see if your price is drifting.
- A monthly report shows scrap weight and income by grade, and scrap as a share of material bought, so trends in waste are visible.
| Measured | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Expected scrap per nest | Baseline for what collections should weigh |
| Scrap by grade | Stainless and aluminium sold at their own price |
| Merchant weights and prices | Checked, not taken on trust |
| Scrap share of material | Early sign of poor nesting or remnant use |
| Income over time | Evidence for negotiating with merchants |
What changes
Grades are kept apart because the tracking makes the difference visible. Collections are checked against expectations, so a light ticket gets questioned. You can talk to merchants with your own figures. And the scrap share of material becomes a number the laser team watches, which tends to improve nesting and remnant use without anyone being told to.
Keeping grades apart takes a little discipline at first. Clearly labelled bins at the laser and the brake, and one for each grade at the saw, do most of the work. The tracking gives people a reason to use them, because the income from each grade is shown, and some shops choose to put part of it towards the team's social fund.
Your accountant will also thank you. Scrap income recorded by collection, with tickets attached, is easier to reconcile than a handful of payments with no paperwork behind them.
Is your scrap worth more than you get?
- All grades go in the same skip.
- You accept the merchant's weight without checking.
- Nobody knows how much scrap to expect.
- Scrap prices have not been compared in a long time.
- Scrap is seen as rubbish rather than income.