Scrapping Aluminum Street Signs

scrapping aluminum street signsAluminum road or street signs are almost always a good item to sell at scrap yards but there are few things that you need to know before you sell them. First thing is to make sure that you are allowed to scrap the road signs. Sometimes if the signs belonged to the town or local municipality you don’t want to take it just because it is on the side of the road. Some scrap yards will only take signs from qualified organizations so you want to make sure that you know ahead of time.

Be careful when scrapping aluminum street signs, many scrap yards will avoid buying them because of the potential of them being stolen. When you are bringing any street signs in for scrap, be sure you have the permission to recycle them. If you have permission from the town or city, it may be a good idea to get a document stating that you are allowed to have them. You can simply as for a doucment with your name on it stating you are allowed to recycle these.

Suggested Reading: Navigating The Gray Areas Of Scrap Metals

Why You Won’t Get A Clean Aluminum Price

While road or street signs may look clean, they are almost always covered with a plastic reflective side that has the words or directional signage on it. Because of that you will never be able to sell the road signs for a clean aluminum price unless you spend the time peeling all of the plastic off (which we do not recommend because it’s time consuming). This could become a very hard thing to do and you will have a very hard time cleaning them perfectly. There will probably be some glue left over and that will make the road sign dirty still.

Be Sure To Use Your Magnet

Other things that you want to look out for will be steel brackets that may be attached to the road signs. While the signs are almost always made of aluminum, the brackets and screws that they use to mount them are generally steel so make sure to take that part off. Also the poles that are often used for street signs are still, so be sure to disconnect them from the aluminum sign so you can get the best price for your scrap.

Hope this helps when you are dealing with road signs, let us know how your scrapping goes!


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