Scrap identification guides
How to tell cast from wrought aluminium, bare bright from tinned copper, and 6063 extrusion from mixed sheet — using magnet, spark, weight, colour and XRF checks.
Browse aluminium grades →Resources
A working knowledge base for metal recycling.
Reference material for buyers, suppliers and plant teams — grade identification, testing methods, documentation and the vocabulary the trade runs on.
Knowledge areas
ISRI grade library
The ISRI naming system decoded grade by grade, with purity ranges, permitted attachments, typical sources and the industries that consume each grade.
Browse copper grades →Alloy guides
Casting alloys versus extrusion alloys, the 6xxx family, copper purity classes and why an alloy family determines which furnace can accept a lot.
See alloy families →Quality control & testing
Sampling method, XRF and spectrometer readings, moisture inspection, radiation screening and the pre-dispatch checklist applied to every lot.
Quality assurance →Furnace preparation & metal recovery
Charge sizing, density, de-coating, de-oiling and briquetting — the preparation steps that decide how much saleable metal actually comes out of a melt.
See our process →Import & export documentation
HS codes, Incoterms, bills of lading, pre-shipment inspection, container loading practice and the paperwork that keeps a scrap shipment moving.
Import & export guide →Metal market terminology
LME basics, cash versus three-month pricing, premiums, discounts to benchmark and how scrap contracts are commonly priced.
Read market insights →Circular economy
Why aluminium and copper are infinitely recyclable, the energy saved against primary production and what responsible sourcing means in practice.
Sustainability →Glossary of metal recycling terms
The terms that appear in scrap contracts, inspection reports and shipping documents, in plain language.
- ISRI code
- A short name (Taint, Talon, Birch, Candy) from the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries specification circular, used worldwide to describe a scrap grade in a contract.
- LME
- The London Metal Exchange — the benchmark exchange whose aluminium and copper cash and 3-month prices most scrap contracts are referenced against.
- Millberry
- Bare bright copper wire, typically 99.9% copper, uncoated and unalloyed, with no tinned, brazed or soldered wire.
- Twitch
- Floated fragmentiser aluminium scrap recovered from shredder output by sink-float media separation.
- UBC
- Used beverage cans — baled aluminium can scrap, dry and free of foreign material.
- Deox / deoxidiser
- Aluminium scrap consumed by steel mills as a deoxidising agent during steelmaking rather than remelted into aluminium products.
- Eddy current separator
- A machine that induces currents in non-ferrous metal to repel it off a belt, separating aluminium and copper from inert residue.
- XRF
- X-ray fluorescence — a handheld or benchtop analyser used to read the elemental composition of a metal sample in seconds.
- Free iron
- Loose or attached ferrous material inside a non-ferrous lot; almost every grade specification limits or prohibits it.
- Charge mix
- The combination of scrap grades and primary metal a furnace melts together to hit a target alloy chemistry.
- Yield / recovery
- The percentage of saleable metal actually recovered from a lot after melt loss, moisture and non-metallics.
- Pre-shipment inspection (PSI)
- An independent inspection of the material and loading carried out before sailing, often required by the importing country.
- Incoterms
- Standard trade terms (FOB, CIF, CFR, DAP) that define where risk, cost and delivery responsibility transfer between seller and buyer.
- Bill of lading
- The carrier's document of title and receipt for the cargo, and the key document in most scrap export payment mechanisms.
- HS code
- The harmonised system tariff code used in customs declarations — aluminium waste and scrap sits under 7602, copper under 7404.
- Radiation screening
- Detection of radioactive contamination in a scrap load, mandatory for import in many jurisdictions.
- Briquetting
- Compacting turnings or fines into dense blocks so they can be charged without excessive melt loss.
- Granulation
- Chopping insulated cable and separating the copper granules from the plastic insulation mechanically.
- Circular economy
- An economic model in which materials are recovered and reused indefinitely rather than discarded after one use cycle.
- Secondary metal
- Metal produced from recycled scrap rather than from mined ore — chemically identical to primary metal.
Need a specification sheet for a particular grade?
Tell us the grade and the application, and our technical team will put the specification, inspection protocol and packing options in writing.