Scrap Calculator

Free scrap calculators running on live daily prices. Work out what a load, a vehicle or a decision is actually worth before you drive to the yard.

Last updated

Every calculator here runs on the same live prices as the rest of the site, updated daily from exchange settlements and market factors rather than typed in by hand. That means the answer you get this morning is not the answer you would have got last week, which is the point.

What these are for

Scrap decisions are arithmetic problems wearing a disguise. Is this load worth the drive? Is the converter worth more than the repair? Should the engine come out before the car goes in?

Each of those has a right answer, and it usually depends on two or three numbers most people do not have in front of them. That is what these tools are for.

The calculators

What they will not do

Worth being clear, because a number on a screen can look more certain than it is.

They do not quote you. Every figure here is indicative, derived from exchange settlements and typical market factors. No yard is obliged to pay it, and none of these tools knows what the buyer down the road is offering this morning. Use them to judge whether a quote is reasonable, then call two or three yards.

They do not know your grade. Most disappointment at the scale is a grading problem rather than a pricing one. If you are unsure what you are holding, the sorting tools guide covers the four physical tests that settle it.

They do not account for deductions. Tyres and fluids come off a vehicle, insulation comes off wire, contamination comes off mixed loads. Ask what was deducted before you sign.

Where the numbers come from

Prices are derived from the settlement price for the refined metal, converted to the local currency and unit, and adjusted by the share a yard typically pays for each grade. Every grade moves daily because the benchmark does.

That model has real limitations, and the price sources guide sets them out honestly alongside the user-reported alternative, including where the other approach answers better.

More tools coming

This section is new and will grow. The calculations already worked through by hand in the buying guides are the queue: buyer routing, cost per usable kilowatt hour for battery packs, wire stripping payback by volume, and the minimum load size that justifies a trip to the yard.