Want to trash your broken refrigerator or get rid of an old, unused car?
You can call SA Recycling at 1-800-GOT-SCRAP to pick up your unwanted scrap metal, or you can make a little cash and drop the offending items off at the company’s new recycling facility at 2780 N. Nellis Blvd.
Scrap yards are a dime a dozen, but SA Recycling wants to make its new location, the company’s fourth in the city, more consumer-friendly.
A company official said nearly 95 percent of its local customers drop off items to collect cash.
A UNLV economist says the scrap metal market, though volatile, can be an economic barometer. If people and businesses are scrapping old cars and refrigerators to buy new ones, he says, it’s a sign of recovery.
“This is geared toward the consumer and households, soccer moms, people who want to recycle not just aluminum cans and plastic, but things they have around their home,” said Cristi Rossi, SA Recycling’s executive vice president of operations. “Scrap yards are places where they have lots of equipment and people aren’t comfortable going to places like those.”
The Anaheim, Calif.-based recycling company piloted the 1-800-GOT-SCRAP program in Southern California last year and decided to expand to Las Vegas after getting positive feedback. For a $50 fee, consumers can have an SA Recycling truck pick up household items, even cars, and take them away to be recycled.
Rossi said 95 percent of the company’s Las Vegas customers still prefer to drop off items to make some money. SA Recycling doesn’t pay for scrap metal it picks up from homes, except for car bodies, but does pay for dropped-off items.
Nevada law mandates that the owner of a car must have the vehicle’s title, even it’s going to be scrapped. Without a title, SA Recycling can’t take the car away, Rossi said.
SA buys items by the ton, so payments are based on weight. The company usually pays out a couple of hundred dollars for a large truckload of heavy items, Rossi said. A refrigerator, for example, is usually priced at $8 to $10. Cars can range from $200 to $300.
The scrap metal business has been booming in recent years as the price of metals like copper and aluminum continue to rise.
“In the last six to eight months, the quantity of business has improved, which to us is a good indication that people are actually starting to buy new things — replacing appliances, things like that,” Rossi said.
Demand for commodities like copper and steel has skyrocketed in recent years due to infrastructure development in China and India.
“The scrap metal market … is in general a more volatile market,” said Stephen Brown, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “A lot of it depends on not only the demand for the metal, but also on the capacity of the companies to recycle the scrap metal.”
Brown said the scrap metal market is also reflective of the economy as a whole — when people and businesses are able to buy new cars, refrigerators and wiring, that’s a sign of recovery.
Source: Las Vegas Business Press
By Caitlin McGarry