Steel scrap metal prices fluctuate significantly, due to both external factors and material grade.  This guide is intended to help you identify your material grade, and to help make our process more transparent.  However, please note that the final call for classification and deductions lies with our salespeople and yard workers.  If you would like assistance with or confirmation of your grade assessment, please give one of our salespeople a call or email your contact information and pictures of the items in question to info@ktrecycling.com.

NOTE:  KT Recycling deals almost exclusively in steel scrap, and while we will accept non-ferrous metals (copper, aluminum, etc.) for disposal, we do not actively trade in the market.   Fundamentally, we believe that being close to a “pure play” ferrous dealer will help us realize better economies of scale, avoid distractions, and let us focus on providing a better customer experience. 

Material Size

Materials, regardless of grade, will always be categorized as prepared or unprepared. Prepared materials take the most effort to produce, and therefore command the highest prices. In order to be considered prepared, the entire load must be cut into pieces 4' x 1.5'x0.5' or smaller. Anything with larger dimensions will be considered unprepared.

Standard Deductions

As is the industry practice, we will add deductions to loads which have non-steel components, or for tanks that have not been prepared for processing. Our most common deductions are for tires (you have the option of removing them yourself), loose concrete, trash, and for tanks that have residual chemicals that need to be disposed of.

NOTE: Our deductions are based on estimates of the total cost of disposal (chemical cleanup, landfill fees, labor, machine stress, idle machines, etc.), not the exact pounds of material, although we do cite the deductions in pounds. For example, we use a standard per-tire rate which is based on our rough historical weight average + the amount of time lost cutting them off + disposal fees.