Is free scrap metal collection really free?

How a free collection pays for itself

Scrap metal has a value to the recycling industry. Steel, cast iron, copper, brass, aluminium and lead are all bought by mills and processors to make new metal, because recycling them uses far less energy than mining and smelting. A collector takes your metal to an authorised recycling facility and is paid by weight and type. That payment covers the fuel, the time and the lifting. So the collection is free to you not out of charity, but because the metal is worth collecting.

That also explains the limits. A collection has to contain enough metal to cover the trip. A boiler, a few radiators, a washing machine, a set of gates or a garden of old railings all do. A single small item usually does not, and an honest collector will tell you so rather than let you wait in.

What is included

• Everything on the ground floor, outside, in a garden, on a drive or at the bottom of a close.
• Lifting, carrying and loading. You do not need to move anything to the kerb or dismantle it.
• Lighter items from any floor where access is safe: radiators, cylinders, bikes, cable, small appliances.
• Cutting on site where something is too long or too heavy to lift whole, such as steel beams or racking.
• Disposal. Everything goes to an authorised recycling facility; nothing is passed on or dumped.

The one case where a charge can apply

Heavy appliances, a washing machine, a cooker, a dishwasher, carried down from an upper floor of a tenement or a block with no lift. That is hard, slow work for two people and a small labour charge per floor may apply. We say so when you book, with the amount, before anything is agreed. Nothing is ever added on the doorstep, and if the metal in the collection is worth more than the labour, there is no charge at all. If access is awkward, send a photo first and we will give you a straight answer.

What a scrap collector cannot take for free

Fridges and freezers are not scrap metal collections: the refrigerant has to be removed at a licensed facility, so they go through the council, the retailer or the recycling centre. Cars are a separate, regulated trade with its own paperwork. Televisions and computers are electrical waste rather than metal. And general rubbish is not metal at all; a collector who offers to take a load of mixed waste free should make you wonder where it is going.

If you are looking to sell metal by weight, that is a different service from a free collection and not what this page is about. A free collection is for getting rid of metal at no cost and no effort.

How to check a collector is legitimate

Anyone who carries other people's waste for a living in Scotland must be registered with SEPA as a waste carrier. The register is public, so you can look a business up by name or registration number before they arrive. Ours is listed in the footer of every page on this site. A registered carrier takes metal to an authorised facility, which matters to you because fly-tipped waste can be traced back to the householder it came from.

Beyond that, the signs are simple. A clear phone number that is answered. A plain answer about cost before the visit. Photographs of real work rather than stock pictures. And no pressure to hand over anything you did not ask them to take.

Arranging one

• Text or WhatsApp a photo of the metal with your postcode, or send the form.
• We reply by call or text with a time and, if anything is unusual, the cost up front.
• Leave the metal where it is. We lift it, load it and take it to be recycled.