3 Surprising Industrial Items That You Can Scrap For Cash

An industrial facility can be a treasure trove for someone looking to make extra money selling scrap. There are obviously valuable items, like leftover metal components and obsolete machinery, but there are some surprising items that could be worth a lot of cash as well.

Identifying these items will help you ensure that you aren't letting any potential profit slip through your fingers when cleaning out an industrial property.

1. Dust

All of the surfaces within an industry facility can become covered with a layer of dust over time. Some of this dust could be valuable, so you shouldn't just sweep it up and throw it away.

It helps to know what types of products were being made in the facility you are cleaning out. If the facility manufactured any components made from precious metals, there could be traces of those metals found in the dust.

Polishing, grinding, and filing during the manufacturing process can create precious metal dust that settles on workbenches and floors along with regular dust. Bag any dust removed from a facility that handled precious metals, and recycle this dust to remove the scrap metal.

2. Circuit Boards

Electronics can be found in most industrial facilities. Whether these components are computer screens of circuit boards in automated equipment, they have value. Circuit boards are among the most common types of electronic equipment found in an industrial setting.

Most electronic circuit boards are manufactured using trace amounts of gold. When you gather enough circuit boards, the gold can really add up. Circuit boards can become a great source of scrap revenue when you clean out an industrial facility that has a lot of electronic machinery.

3. Plating Tanks

Plating is an important industrial process that occurs in many manufacturing facilities. When an item is plated, it is dipped into a tank along with an anode made from a durable or valuable metal.

Ideally, the precious metal migrates immediately to the surface of the item being plated when an electric current is introduced. The truth is that most plating tanks experience some level of contamination. 

Tanks will probably be emptied of their contents, but there could be trace amounts of precious metals found on the interior surfaces of a plating tank. Contaminant particles can actually plate the interior walls of the tank. You can remove this layer of precious metal from the plating tank and recycle it for serious cash.

Reach out to a company that is seeking industrial scrap for cash to learn more.


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