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The cost stack
Every scrap price is built the same way, working backwards from what the material will eventually sell for:
| Step | Effect on your rate |
|---|---|
| What a reprocessor will pay for finished, clean material | The ceiling |
| − Sorting and cleaning labour | Down |
| − Processing: baling, shredding, granulating, stripping | Down |
| − Yield loss from contamination and moisture | Down |
| − Transport, both collection and onward freight | Down |
| − Working capital and price risk | Down |
| − Margin | Down |
| = What you are offered |
Nothing in that list is negotiable in principle. What is negotiable is how large each deduction has to be — and most of that is decided by the state your material is in before anyone quotes on it.
It starts with a global index
Scrap is a commodity, and commodity prices are set far away from any particular yard. Copper and aluminium track the London Metal Exchange. Steel scrap follows international billet and mill demand. PET follows virgin polymer, which follows crude oil.
Three consequences follow, and they explain most of what frustrates people:
- A quote has a short shelf life. A price given on Monday may genuinely not be available on Friday. This is not a tactic.
- No dealer can pay above the market for long. If someone quotes substantially above everyone else, something else is going on — see the red flags below.
- Timing matters more than haggling. Commodity swings routinely dwarf anything you will win in a negotiation. If you can hold material safely and you know the market is soft, waiting is a real option.
What comes off the top
Sorting labour
The biggest single variable, and the one most in your control. Material that arrives already separated by type and colour needs almost no work. A mixed heap needs someone paid by the day to pull it apart, and that wage comes out of your rate. It is not a penalty — it is a cost that has to sit somewhere.
Processing
Loose film has to be baled. Whole items may need granulating. Cable has to be stripped. Appliances have to be dismantled. Each step is machinery, power and labour.
Contamination and yield loss
This is the deduction people most often underestimate, because it does not scale with the amount of contamination — it scales with the risk it creates.
A small amount of PVC in a load of rigid plastic does not reduce the value by the weight of the PVC. It threatens the batch. A reprocessor who gets one bad batch stops trusting the supply. So the deduction reflects the consequence, not the quantity, and it is why we sort as carefully as we do at intake.
Moisture is simpler but just as real: water is weight you would be paid for and yield you will not deliver. Wet material is discounted for both reasons.
Transport
Scrap is heavy or bulky, and often both. Sending a vehicle to collect fifty kilos costs almost exactly what it costs to collect a tonne. That is the entire reason small loads are quoted at lower per-kilo rates, and why baling raises the price of light material — it puts more weight on the same truck.
Price risk and working capital
A dealer pays you today and sells weeks later, carrying the market movement in between. On volatile metals that risk is priced in. It is also why cash-on-collection usually carries a slightly lower rate than payment on settlement — you are being paid for certainty.
Why two identical loads fetch different rates
Two factories both offer a tonne of HDPE. One gets appreciably more. The differences are usually these:
| Factor | Better rate | Worse rate |
|---|---|---|
| Sorting | Single polymer, single colour | Mixed grades and colours |
| Form | Baled or granulated | Loose whole items |
| Cleanliness | Dry, no residue, labels off | Wet, dirty, product left in |
| Quantity | Full vehicle load | Part load |
| Access | Vehicle reaches the material; loading help available | Carried out by hand |
| Regularity | Predictable monthly volume | One-off |
| Paperwork | Ready and correct | Sorted out at the gate |
That last row matters more than people expect. A supplier whose invoicing is clean is cheaper to deal with, and a buyer who values the relationship will reflect it.
Where you have leverage
- Segregate at source. Bins at the machine, not sorting later. This is the highest-return change available to almost every generator.
- Accumulate to a full load. If you can store safely, do. The per-kilo difference between a part load and a full one is significant.
- Keep it dry and under cover. Costs nothing, protects both weight and grade.
- Offer regular volume. A committed monthly quantity is worth more to a buyer than the same tonnage arriving unpredictably, and it should be reflected in your rate.
- Get more than one quote — on the same description. Quotes are only comparable if every dealer is pricing the same thing. Photographs and an honest description make that possible.
- Ask what would raise the rate. Any dealer worth selling to will tell you specifically. If the answer is vague, that is information too.
Red flags in a quote
- A rate well above everyone else, sight unseen. It tends to be revised downward once the vehicle is loaded and you have lost your negotiating position.
- Reluctance to weigh in front of you, or a scale you are not allowed to see zeroed.
- No invoice. Convenient in the moment; a problem for your books, your GST position and any later dispute.
- Deductions appearing only at settlement. Moisture or contamination allowances should be discussed before the material moves, not produced afterwards.
- Vagueness about where the material goes. For regulated streams like e-waste and batteries, you may carry obligations of your own. See our guide to India's e-waste rules.
How we quote. We weigh openly, we tell you which grade we are paying and why, and if we are paying less than you hoped we will show you the contamination rather than just naming a lower number. If we cannot beat another genuine offer, we will say so.
Want a real number for your material?
Send photographs as it is stored, a rough weight and your town.