Wondering what to do with the leftovers after your repairman comes to replace your garage door parts? The good news is that most garage door repair companies will recycle your old parts for free.
However, if your repair was a DIY project or the technician didn’t take your parts, you may be left wondering what to do with them.
How To Recycle Scrap Metal
You can look up metal recycling in your area to find a facility that accepts it. You may also be able to sell it for some cash as scrap metal does have some value. The first thing you’ll want to do is determine whether your metal is ferrous or non-ferrous (whether or not it contains iron). The easiest way to do this is to grab a magnet (even one from your refrigerator), and see which metal objects it sticks to. If the magnet sticks, you’re dealing with a ferrous metal, usually steel or iron. Recycling ferrous metals won’t rake in much dough, but disposing of it properly keeps the scrap out of landfills and puts it to use. According to the Steel Recycling Institute, steel is infinitely recyclable. Once processed to the point of melting, it can easily be used by the steel industry to develop new products.
If the magnet doesn’t stick, you’re dealing with a non-ferrous metal, which includes: copper, aluminum, brass, stainless steel and bronze. These materials are more valuable and lucrative to trade in. Copper (found in plumbing, roofing, and wires), and brass (found in door handles, keys, and light fixtures) are more valuable than aluminum and stainless steel.
Why You Should Recycle Scrap Metal
Whatever you do, don’t throw it away. Scrap metal can be recycled to create new products much more efficiently than mining new metal from the earth. While glass and plastic can be manufactured from natural resources, metal is in limited supply since it must be mined — we can’t make more aluminum, copper and steel. Metal that has been thrown away will end up polluting landfills and causing heavy metal contamination in the soil.
If you’re truly environmentally conscious, you will recycle metals for reasons other than money. While aluminum isn’t as valuable, recycling it saves 80 percent of the energy that was used to make it originally.
Take care of your environment by recycling old parts from your garage!