starting your own scrap yard

[whitesid]

hi,
a friend of mine is getting serious about starting his own scrap metal business. he has saved up some money to start it. although I'm not sure that it is enough. he also is asking around for the property. has anyone had any experience wit owning a yard or starting there own? it also brings up a few questions of, i would be very happy if someone could help me out wit some of my questions

1. how much money do you think would be necessary to starting your own yard?
2. how much property do you think is needed?
3. once you get the metal how do you find places to ship it out? do you go to the smelting company's wit large loads and get a higher price or you ship out of the country to places like japan and china?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

How to Research for Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting From Lead Generation to Vetting - Grab it through Amazon!

[Silver Stripe]

I don't have any answers for ya but ifn it was me I would setup the end (don't know what else to call it) line first, obviousely the bigger the better. Mark

 

[pepperpump]

Hey White, I don't have any answers either but make sure you check with the county first. I am sure there are a lot of rules and regs and permits that are needed and have to be followed first. I would think this would be a substantial issue to deal with first and solve any issues before even starting anything else. Good luck though!
Pepperpump 8)

 

[jeff of pa]

the Biggest problems would be

People in the same county & Enviromental Protection.

Believe it or not even the people who
preach about recycling to save the earth,
get the "Not in my Backyard"
mentality. and these types of people think
their Backyard includes a hundred mile radius
of their actual home

Existing places are grandfathered, & although they
still have to come up to codes in some things,
don't necessarily have to be as Strict.

But a new Buisness may have to have Liners like land fills,
Equipment to collect rain water Runoff from rusty Metal,
People to come in & test it regularly, Pay people to hall it off,
Etc. Etc.
Insanity runs wild these days.

 

[Urban Prospector]

Jeff your right on.Had a Die Cast Plant and cost $6800 last year to let the rain run off the roof. Oil, Asbestos and PCBs from transformers are the scary stuff in scrap.Start a Stanford and sons second hand store and scrap the unsellable unwanted stuff as a secondary function.To start your investment as a scrap dealer you'll need one or more trucks 40,000 lbs capacity a towable forklift of up to 25000 lbs capacity.Some means of shreading chopping cutting the scrap to a min of 5 ft sections.I recently worked with a guy that bought loads and took them straight to the harbor and he was making some coin off it.To stock pile it somewere would be tough IMO.Might look into buying an existing scrap co/yard as it would be grandfathered in. Good Luck n Happy Scapy.

 

[ricmarks]

how is it going, did u start a scrap yard? I truck and can not tell you much about the front in but I do know that I pulled a load of plastic to Canada and a load of shredded alum to SC. That is the way you get the best return.

With that said you probably have a lot of ops right in your area for a lot less. Such as go the the local bars and ask them how much they spend to dispose of trash.Then ask them if they would like to reduce it. Tell them you would come around x times a week at night and pick up their waste cans and bottles. All they have to do is use the provided bins to keep them separated.

All of them probably would not be willing but I bet alot would. Also do not forget the restaurants (recycled fryer grease) or anywhere that gets things shipped in (card board boxes and wooden pallets). As far as storage on a small project like this check your local code enforcement, my area is wide open.

good luck ric

 

[wardon]

One thing I have not seen mentioned and I think would be good is a rail road spur. This would by far be the cheapest way to ship iron. The rail road will spot you a gondolla car and when you have it loaded you just call in a pickup order to have it picked up. You will have to have a sale in place for it to be deliverd to. good luck if you go for it.wardon