How to Sort Copper Before You Drive to Moosup

You've got a coffee can of pipe offcuts in the garage, a box of wire left from a rewire, and a furnace motor you've been meaning to deal with. It all looks like copper, and it is. But a scrap yard doesn't see one pile of copper. It sees grades, and the grade decides how your load gets sorted and weighed. A few minutes of sorting at home makes the drive to Winco Scrap Metal & Container at 24 Ward Ave in Moosup quicker, and it leaves you with fewer surprises at the scale.

The grades Winco lists

Winco's copper page names six categories: bare bright copper wire, stripped copper wire, insulated copper wire, No. 1 copper, No. 2 copper, and electric motors, including starters and alternators. Here's what those words mean in the way most yards use them.

• Bare bright: clean, shiny, uncoated copper wire. No insulation, no tarnish, no coating. Think of the bare ground wire you'd pull out of a cable.
• Stripped copper wire: wire that started with insulation and had it removed, so what you bring is only metal.
• Insulated copper wire: copper still wearing its plastic or rubber jacket. Winco lists it as its own category, so you don't have to strip it just to bring it in.
• No. 1 copper: clean copper with no solder, paint, or fittings on it. A length of cut pipe with nothing attached is the classic example.
• No. 2 copper: copper that has solder, paint, or fittings on it, like pipe with sweated joints or pipe that's been painted.
• Electric motors: including starters and alternators.

Sort at home, not at the scale

The simplest method is a bucket or a cardboard box for each grade. Put the bright, shiny wire in one. Put clean pipe in another. Anything with solder blobs, paint, or a brass valve still threaded onto it goes in a third. Anything that isn't copper at all, like steel fittings, goes in its own pile.

Why bother? As a rule, a yard weighs and values each grade on its own. A clean piece of pipe tossed in with soldered fittings can end up treated like the lower grade, because nobody wants to pick through the pile twice. Cleaner, separated material is generally worth more per pound than a mixed heap, and a tidy load is also faster for a technician to assess. Winco's technicians weigh and assess every load and make you an offer, so the easier you make that job, the smoother your visit goes.

A few habits help. Cut off plugs, connectors, and wire nuts before you bring a cord in. Knock off any loose dirt or insulation chips. Keep the wet stuff separate from the dry, since a soggy cardboard box full of wire is miserable to carry. And when you can't tell whether something is copper, scratch a small spot with a file or the tip of a knife. Copper shows a bright orange-pink under the surface. A magnet won't help here, because copper doesn't stick to one, but it will quickly tell you the steel fittings from the copper tube.

Motors, starters, and alternators

Inside most electric motors is a coil of copper wire wrapped around an iron core. That's why Winco lists motors, starters, and alternators on its copper page. If you've got a dead furnace blower, a pool pump motor, or an alternator off a car you're parting out, those belong with your copper, not your steel.

Before you spend an afternoon cutting a motor open on the driveway, call and ask whether Winco wants it whole. It's a question that takes thirty seconds on the phone and can save you a sore back and a pile of greasy laminations to haul.

When you pull in

Winco has a 35-foot truck scale on site, so a bucket and a full truckload are both normal visitors. If you're hauling a pickup bed of mixed copper, say so when you arrive and let the staff point you where to go. Bring everything in containers you can lift without a struggle. A five-gallon bucket of copper wire gets heavy fast, so don't overfill it. Tie down anything loose in the bed of the truck on the way over.

The yard is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and Saturday, 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM. It's closed Sunday. If you have a big job coming, like a whole-house rewire or a plumbing replacement, it's worth keeping the copper separated as you go instead of sorting one giant pile when the job is over. You'll thank yourself when the pipe is already clean and the wire is already coiled.

Winco's copper page lists every grade they buy, and the staff can answer questions about anything you're unsure of. Call (860) 230-0552 before you load the truck.