A brief guide to acquiring more scrap during the winter slowdown.
As winter approaches, it’s time to focus on holiday scrap collection strategies to keep your scrap yard thriving. Most of us are thinking more about tinsel and eggnog than scrap metal. But your scrap yard can actually benefit from the holiday season!
And there’s good reason to leverage that festive revenue boost: Winter can be rough in the scrap business. Snow and ice can bring construction projects to a halt, and lots of scrappers take the season off. Plus, transporting scrap from place to place can be more difficult if the roads are nasty.
But there’s good news: You can leverage the holidays to build yourself a bit of a buffer. That’s because the holiday season tends to generate a lot of potential scrap. Here are some examples.
Holiday lights
Both indoor and outdoor lights often contain copper wire. They’re a great target, especially after the holidays, when folks tend to toss burnt-out strands. And don’t forget extension cords!
Electronics and appliances
There’s often copper, aluminum, silver, and gold to be found in old appliances and electronics! Lots of people get new gear for the holidays. Others take advantage of big box end-of-year sales to upgrade their old stuff. Stoves, dishwashers, microwaves, and more are full of great scrap.
Bicycles
Bicycles of all types and sizes can contain valuable metals and scrap. Anyone who got a new bike for Christmas may be ready to say goodbye to the old one. Depending on the bike, it might contain titanium, Chromalloy steel, aluminum alloy, and carbon fiber.
Furniture
A lot of furniture tends to go on sale around the holidays, and many people use this as an opportunity for an upgrade. Lots of older furniture is made with good quality metal, such as aluminum, steel, or wrought iron. Old fixtures might also contain copper or brass. And don’t forget about patio furniture!
Cars
Cars aren’t necessarily a common holiday gift. But car dealerships, like appliance stores, are highly motivated to clear out their inventory at the end of the year. Many people take advantage of steep discounts and attractive financing to get a new car around this time. If they’re upgrading from a clunker, that older vehicle might be ready for the scrapyard. Needless to say, cars are full of valuable materials, right down to the battery.
A mini marketing plan for holiday scrap
There are a lot of tactics you might consider to collect as much scrap as possible. Here are a few ideas:
- Run ads for large appliance recycling. A lot of people may not realize they can get a little cash for their old appliances! But if they see an ad on Facebook or in the paper, they might be motivated to take advantage. Facebook ads can be very inexpensive, and it’s pretty easy to target people based on location. The same is true for smaller city-specific papers. Many of these smaller newspapers are owned by regional publishers, who might cut you a deal on multiple ads.
- Send out postcards. They can be fairly simple, just a festive design and a list of items you accept. You can spend a day dropping them in mailboxes around town. Or you can buy a list of local addresses at the post office and mail them. Another option is door hangers. Both are inexpensive ways to spread the word and build awareness of your business.
- Send out emails. Make sure your usual partners know what sort of items you’re accepting. If your most loyal scrappers know you’re taking holiday lights, they’ll keep an eye out for you.
- Offer pickup services. Some families won’t have a vehicle big enough to bring their old oven or bike straight to you. If you have a truck, you might consider offering that service for folks who live close. You can even have fun with it and have your pickup person wear a holiday swear or hat! This may not be practical for every scrap yard. But if business is a little slow, it can be a nice way to give your workers some hours.
Plenty of scrap yards use the holidays as a chance to slow down themselves. If that’s your plan, then you should enjoy every minute of a well-earned break. But if you’re looking to hustle for some extra cash when the snow starts to fall, hopefully these ideas can give you a head start!
Don’t forget, Scaleit makes it easy to keep track of exactly what you’ve got on hand. Our inventory system will give you up-to-the-minute reports on stock, so you can always make good decisions based on the most current information. Want to learn more? You can schedule a demo to see Scaleit in action.
From all of us at Scaleit, Happy Holidays!