Scrap metal grades: the ladders that decide your payout
Grades are the shorthand yards use to tell different qualities of the same metal apart. A pound of bare-bright copper and a pound of insulated #2 wire are both copper — but the price gap between them often runs 40–60%. This category breaks down the ladders for the metals yards actually buy, plus the practical sorting rules that move a load up the ladder before it hits the scale.
Why grades matter for payout
Grades exist because mills need predictable feedstock. The cleaner and more uniform the input, the less processing the mill has to do and the more they'll pay. ISRI's published specs (the same ones US yards use to define grade boundaries — Barley for clean aluminum extrusion, Birch/Cliff for copper wire, Honey for #2 copper, HMS 1 and HMS 2 for prepared steel, and so on) give yards and mills a common vocabulary across the country.
Two rules drive almost every payout argument:
- Lowest grade wins on a mixed load. Drop a bin of bare bright with three pieces of #2 mixed in, and the whole bin grades down to #2 — sometimes worse if the grader can't tell what's underneath.
- Coatings and contamination cost recovery. Paint, oil, solder, attached fittings, and moisture all reduce what the mill recovers per pound, and the yard prices that loss into your tier.
Common grade ladders by metal
These are the ladders worth learning. Each metal will get its own leaf with full per-pound pricing.
| Metal | Top grade | Middle | Bottom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copper | Bare bright (#1 stripped) | #1 (clean tube) / #2 (oxidized) | Insulated wire / sealed units |
| Aluminum | Sheet (clean) | Extrusion / cast | UBC (cans) / mixed / painted |
| Brass | Yellow (clean) | Red brass / plumbing | Mixed / dirty |
| Carbon steel | #1 prepared (HMS 1) | #2 prepared (HMS 2) | Shred / tin / cast iron |
| Stainless | 316 solids | 304 solids | 304 turnings / mixed |
Real per-pound numbers and grade-by-grade descriptions live on the leaf pages — Copper & Wire is the deepest of them.
How to grade your own load before the scale
A 30-minute sort at home almost always beats letting the yard sort for you. Practical rules:
- Magnet first — every piece. Stainless and aluminum both fool the eye; the magnet doesn't lie
- Strip what's worth stripping — bare-bright pays a premium worth the labor at #2-and-better wire gauges
- Separate cast from sheet aluminum — cast pays roughly 70–85% of sheet, and yards always default mixed loads to the lower number
- Don't mix yellow brass with red — they price separately and a mixed bin defaults to the lower rung
- Drain everything — fluids, refrigerant, oil. Sealed units get downgraded or rejected
When yards downgrade and how to push back
Yards downgrade for legitimate reasons (contamination, sealed units, oversize) and for less-legitimate ones (busy day, new scale-house clerk, you look like you don't know the ladder). What to know:
- Always ask which grade your load was paid as, and ask to see the ticket before you leave
- Spot-check the yard's price board against Scrap Metal Prices Today and live spot via Copper Price
- A 5–10% spread between yards is normal; a 20%+ spread on the same grade means somebody is wrong
- If a yard refuses to break out grades on a mixed load, that's a signal to call around (see Selling Guide / Pricing)
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between #1 and #2 copper?
#1 copper is clean, unalloyed, uncoated. #2 has oxidation, solder, paint, or trace alloys — anything that means the mill has to clean it up. Per-pound, #1 typically pays 5–15% more than #2 in normal markets. Full grade definitions on Copper & Wire, live pricing on Copper Price.
Why does dirty scrap pay less than clean?
Mills price for the metal they can recover, not the gross weight you delivered. Coatings, attachments, and contaminants either burn off (lost mass) or have to be processed out (added cost). Both come out of your payout.
Does grade vocabulary vary by yard?
The big ones don't (bare bright, HMS 1, 304/316). The middle ones do (some yards split #2 copper into two sub-grades; some lump UBC with mixed aluminum). When in doubt, ask the scale-house operator to point at the grade on their board.
Related guides
- Copper & Wire: Grades, Prices, and What Yards Want — the copper grade ladder in detail
- Scrap Basics — foundational vocabulary first
- Scrap Yards — how the buy side reads grades
- Scrap Metal Prices Today — price snapshot across the ladders
- Copper Price — live spot context for grade #1
- Aluminum Price — live spot context for the sheet/cast spread
- Selling Guide / Preparation — sort-and-strip walkthrough