Aluminum Scrap Grades and Preparation: A Business Guide
TL;DR: Aluminum scrap grades and preparation decide your payout. Learn how extrusion, cast, sheet and cans are graded, how alloys and contamination move the price, and how to sell in bulk in Miami.
Aluminum leaves your plant every week as offcuts, chips, frames and castings. What you get paid for depends less on the metal and more on how it arrives at the scale. Understanding aluminum scrap grades and preparation lets your business sort once, ship clean and get quoted on the grade the material deserves instead of the lowest one in the pile.
Why aluminum is a steady revenue stream
Aluminum can be recycled without losing its properties. The International Aluminium Institute reports that melting scrap requires only around 5% of the energy needed to produce virgin metal from bauxite. This difference explains why remelters and smelters pay for a reliable supply of clean material month after month.
Demand does not vanish when the market dips. Packaging, construction, automotive and electrical buyers need secondary aluminum on a schedule, and exporters serving the Caribbean and Latin America compete for uniform lots. For a fabrication shop, this turns a disposal expense into a recurring deposit.
The condition is consistency. A buyer pays a grade price when the load matches that grade every time. Mixed, dirty or unsorted aluminum gets priced as the weakest material in it. If you still classify by hand, start with the difference between ferrous and non-ferrous metals, then move to the aluminum grades below.
Common aluminum scrap grades
US yards classify aluminum scrap grades with the specifications of the Recycled Materials Association (ReMA, formerly ISRI). Each code word states what the material must contain and what it must be free of. Your load is graded against those definitions, not against what you call it.
| Grade | ReMA code | Typical source | What the spec expects |
| Extrusion (6063) | Toto | Window and door frames, curtain wall, profiles | Bare or anodized. Painted or non-6063 only by prior agreement. No steel hardware, thermal breaks or glass |
| Cast | Tense | Engine blocks, housings, pump bodies | Free of iron, brass and dirt. Oil and grease under 2% |
| Old sheet | Taint/Tabor | Siding, gutters, roofing, panels | Two or more alloys. No foil, screen wire, radiator shells or plastic |
| Used beverage cans | UBC | Drink cans, loose or baled | Clean, dry, no steel cans, liquids or trash |
| Turnings and borings | Teens | Machining chips | Dry, segregated by alloy, minimal oil and no steel chips |
The alloy number tells you the family. The 6xxx series (magnesium and silicon) covers 6063 extrusion and 6061 plate, bar and tube. The 7xxx series adds zinc, and 7075 is common in aerospace and tooling. Can bodies are 3xxx, can lids 5xxx. Copper in 2xxx and zinc in 7xxx are hard for many remelters to absorb, so a lot of “clean extrusion” that hides 7075 drops a grade or comes back rejected.
Your production records are the cheapest sorting tool you own. A machine shop knows which alloy ran on which job. Keep that information with the scrap, and you can sell segregated 6061 or 7075 turnings instead of mixed chips that buyers value at the bottom of the range.
How aluminum is priced
Scrap pricing starts at the London Metal Exchange. The LME aluminum contract sets the global benchmark for primary metal, while US buyers add the Midwest premium, a regional surcharge that reflects delivery costs and tariffs. From that reference, buyers price each grade at a discount. Clean extrusion commands prices closest to the benchmark, while contaminated mixed material sells well below it.
Three factors set the size of your discount: alloy (known and uniform pays more), cleanliness (attachments and residue are deducted from weight or priced as a lower grade) and volume (container lots cut handling cost per pound). The numbers move every day, so this article stays on grades. For current figures on extrusion, cast and sheet, read the Miami scrap prices post.
Prep that raises your grade
Remove steel first. Screws, hinges, rivets, brackets and steel inserts in castings all fail the magnet test. ReMA specifications allow yards to deduct foreign attachments, and in practice, a yard either deducts a percentage or downgrades the entire load. Ten minutes with a drill and a magnet can move a pallet from “extrusion with attachments” to clean extrusion.
Separate scrap by alloy and form from the moment you generate it. Put extrusion, sheet, cast and turnings in different bins. Keep painted profiles away from bare and anodized ones, and label bins by alloy when your shop processes known materials. Mixing a bin later requires more labor than keeping materials separate from the start.
Keep it dry and free of residue. Drain coolant and oil from chips before they go in the hopper. Glass, rubber gaskets, plastic thermal breaks and insulation foam come off before the load ships. Aluminum-copper radiators stay in their own pile: they are a separate grade, and the copper side follows the rules in how to prepare copper scrap. That is where the money is: same weight, higher grade, bigger check.
Run this technical checklist before you load a container or call for pickup:
- A magnet passes over every bin with no pull.
- Extrusions are bare or anodized, with painted lots segregated and declared.
- Castings are free of steel inserts, brass fittings and visible oil.
- Turnings are drained, dry and sorted by alloy (6061, 7075, mixed).
- No glass, rubber, plastic, foam or insulation in any bin.
- Alloy documentation (mill certificates or job records) travels with the lot.
- Estimated weight by grade is written down to plan the container or pickup.
Selling aluminum in bulk
Volume changes the math. A container or full truckload is quoted per ton against the exchange, with less handling per pound than drop-offs of a few hundred pounds. If your plant produces aluminum every week, a scheduled program with bins or a roll-off on site beats sporadic trips. The steps are in how to set up an industrial recycling program at your plant.
When you sell aluminum in bulk at General Metals Corp in Miami, our team weighs your load on certified scales, grades it on arrival and quotes it against the live exchange price. Bring a bill of lading, estimated weights by grade and photos of the load. This paperwork speeds up grading and helps prevent disputes about the material you shipped.
Sellers in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Trinidad work the same way by container. Buyers grade the lot when it arrives, and sellers receive payment by wire transfer when the container clears release procedures. Prepared, documented loads clear faster on both sides of the water.
General Metals Corp has managed this container flow with Caribbean sellers for decades: buyers grade the lot when it arrives, and sellers receive payment by wire when the container clears release procedures.
Sell your aluminum scrap to General Metals Corp
General Metals Corp has bought and exported scrap from Miami since 1970. Our team grades your extrusion, cast, sheet and turnings according to ReMA specifications, weighs the material on certified scales and quotes each load against the live LME price.
Whether you ship a pallet a month or a container a week, the process stays the same: send us photos of the load and an estimated weight by grade, and we’ll provide a quote before the material leaves your facility. We’ll send payment by wire when the container clears release procedures.
Request a bulk quote · Schedule a pickup in Miami · Ask about container shipments from the Caribbean
