Scrap copper grades explained: bright, #2, domestic, insulated wire and more

How scrap copper is graded

A yard is paying for the copper it can sell on, not the weight that comes over the scale. Every grade is really an answer to two questions: how much of this is actually copper, and how much work will it take to get it ready to ship? Clean, bare, unalloyed copper needs nothing done to it, so it sits at the top. Every coating, fitting, bit of insulation or lump of steel either costs the yard labour or ends up as a deduction.

Australian yards don’t all use identical names, but most price lists run in the same order. The names below are the ones in AltScrap’s default price list — you’ll see the same grades at most counters, sometimes spelt a little differently.

Bright, #1, #2/burnt and domestic copper

• COPPER BRIGHT WIRE — bare, shiny, uncoated copper wire with the insulation fully stripped. No tinning, no solder, no paint, no heavy tarnish, no burnt wire. This is the top grade, and the one most often argued over at the counter: a bit of tarnish or a few tinned ends is usually enough to knock a parcel down to #1 or #2.
• COPPER #1/BRIGHT/TUBE — clean, unalloyed copper that isn’t quite bright wire: clean copper pipe and tube with the fittings cut off, bus bar, heavy clean offcuts and clean wire with light oxidation. No solder, paint, brass fittings or insulation.
• COPPER #2/BURNT — unalloyed copper that’s dirtier: pipe with solder joints or paint, tinned or coated wire, heavily oxidised copper and burnt wire. Burnt wire goes here because burning leaves it brittle and coated in residue — which is why burning cable to strip it nearly always costs more than it saves.
• COPPER DOMESTIC/LIGHT — thin-gauge copper from around the house: hot water cylinders with the fittings and jackets removed, thin sheet, light pipe, roofing and flashing. Lighter material carries more surface contamination for its weight, so it sits below #2.

You may also see COPPER REFINERY on some lists — lower-purity copper below #2, too contaminated to be remelted as it is and needing to be refined. If you’re not sure whether something is #2 or refinery grade, ask before you mix it in.

Export buyers often grade against the US trade names — bright wire is “Barley”, for example — so you may hear those in the trade. At an Australian counter, the descriptive names above are what you’ll be paid against.

Insulated copper wire (ICW) and cable

Insulated copper wire is priced by recovery: the share of the weight that’s copper once the insulation is gone. A grade called COPPER ICW 42% means the yard expects about 42 kg of copper from every 100 kg of wire; COP ICW #3 30% - 34% is lower-recovery wire, paid less per kilo because two-thirds of what you’re selling is plastic.

• Recovery goes up with conductor size. Thick single-core power cable gives back far more copper than thin multi-core flex, data cable or phone cable.
• COP ICW HARNESS WIRE — automotive wiring looms. Thin wire, lots of plastic, plugs and tape, so it has its own grade.
• COP CABLE STEEL ARM and COP CABLE LEAD ARM — armoured cable, with a steel or lead sheath around the copper. The armour is weight the yard has to separate, so it’s priced on its own.

Yards set recovery by eye, by experience and sometimes by stripping a sample. If you bring in mixed wire, expect it to be priced at the recovery of the worst wire in the pile. Keeping thick cable separate from thin wire is the easiest way to get the better rate on the good stuff.

Whether to strip it yourself is a time question. Stripped bright wire is worth much more per kilo than insulated wire, but for thin wire the gap rarely pays for the hours. It’s usually only worth stripping heavy cable — and never by burning.

Motors, sealed units and irony copper

A lot of copper arrives wrapped in steel. These grades price the whole item rather than the copper inside:

• COP ELECT MOTORS LARGE and COP ELECT MOTORS MIX — electric motors, priced by size because bigger motors usually carry more copper winding for their weight.
• COP STARTERS & ALTRNS — car starter motors and alternators.
• COPPER SEALED UNITS — compressors from fridges, freezers and air conditioners. Most yards want the oil drained and the refrigerant recovered before they come in.
• COPPER BALLAST — copper-wound lighting ballasts.
• COPPER IRONY — copper with iron or steel still attached: pipe with steel brackets, copper with bolts through it, mixed copper-and-steel parts.

Radiators get their own grades — brass/copper and aluminium/copper, clean or irony — because of the mix of metals in them. Clean radiators with the steel brackets and plastic tanks removed are worth more than the same radiator irony.

How contamination and deductions affect the price

Contamination costs you in one of two ways. The yard either downgrades the whole parcel (bright wire with tinned pieces mixed in gets paid as #2) or keeps the grade and takes a deduction off the weight for what isn’t copper. Common reasons for a deduction or downgrade:

• brass fittings, steel brackets, screws and bolts left on;
• insulation, tape, plastic and cable ties in a bare-copper parcel;
• solder, paint or tinning on what’s sold as bright or #1;
• oil in motors and compressors;
• water, dirt and mud — wet copper weighs more, and the yard knows it;
• mixed grades in one bag, priced at the lowest grade in it.

A good counter records deductions as deductions — weight off, with a reason — rather than quietly lowering the price. That way you can see what it cost you and fix it next time.

How to prep copper for a better price

1. Sort by grade before you leave. Separate bags or bins for bright, #1, #2, domestic, insulated wire and motors.
2. Cut off brass fittings and steel. A pair of cutters at the end of a job turns irony copper into #1 or #2.
3. Keep insulated wire sorted by thickness — heavy cable in one pile, thin wire and flex in another.
4. Drain oil from motors and compressors.
5. Keep it dry and reasonably clean.
6. Don’t burn cable. It downgrades the copper and the smoke is toxic.
7. Ask the yard how it grades borderline material before you mix it in.

For yards, the counter side matters just as much: a price list with every grade on it, and a record of what was deducted and why. In AltScrap, each grade is an item on the price list for that store, staff pick the item and enter the weight, and deductions are recorded against the line — so the rate comes from the list, not from memory, and a heavy deduction shows up in the reports.