RECYCLING BRASS FAUCETS, FIXTURES, AND FIREPLACE TOOLS

Have something broken lying around your home, but not sure if you can recycle it? Or even what metal it is? Discover these common brass items around your home, and get paid to recycle at Metro Recycling!

• Faucets: look no further than under your sink for old brass stems and gaskets

• Fixtures: water pressure regulators and elbow fittings from your old RV, and radiator cores, tubes, and tanks are made of brass

• Brass fireplace tools: screens, pokers, shovels are often made of spark-resistant brass

• Construction components: many bolts, locks, handles, light and window fittings, electrical sockets, and letterboxes are brass

• Decorative brass items: many vintage decorations are made of brass, such as trays, candlesticks, lamps, bed frames, and figurinesMusical instruments: brass musical instruments are pure, yellow brass

• Boat parts: props, shafts, and couplers on “old time” boats are often brass

Types of Recyclable Brass

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, along with trace amounts of lead, aluminum, manganese, iron, and tin. Brass resists corrosion and wear, and has high electrical and thermal conductivity. Although a yellow-gold is the most commonly seen color of brass, it can be red or even silver! Yellow brass is determined by the amount of copper in the alloy; silver-colored brass contains nickel or has a chromium plating (as seen on some sink fixtures).

Looking to recycle your old brass items?

Metro Recycling accepts a wide range of brass types—machinery brass, yellow plumbing brass, yellow brass breakage, red brass, and red brass breakage. Brass breakage include brass items with copper, iron, aluminum, or stainless steel attachments that require additional processing before they can be recycled.

Please note that we do not accept brass shell casings.

Find out what else you can recycle at our three locations in Valparaiso, Griffith, and Blue Island, Illinois.