Aluminium is the metal where sorting makes the clearest difference. Steel is steel and copper is mostly obvious, but aluminium arrives in four or five forms that look similar in a skip and are priced quite differently.
If you run a fabrication shop or you are finishing a site, this is the one worth putting bins out for.
The grades you will actually have
- Extrusion. Window and door profiles, curtain wall sections, framing offcuts. Clean mill finish extrusion is the best of the common grades.
- Sheet. Cladding, trays, panels, ducting. Lower than extrusion but straightforward.
- Cast. Housings, gearbox cases, engine parts, pump bodies. Different alloy, its own rate.
- Turnings and swarf. Machine shop output. Paid by weight, and how it is stored decides how much of that weight is metal.
- Composite panel. ACP cladding is aluminium skin over a plastic core. It has value but nothing near solid sheet, and it has to be quoted separately.
What contamination costs
Paint and anodising are fine. That surprises people, but a coating is thin and it does not change what the metal is. Powder coated window sections are still good extrusion.
What does cost you: steel screws and brackets, rubber gaskets, the plastic thermal break inside newer window profiles, glass left in frames, and steel cores inside sections. A magnet sorts most of it in seconds.
With swarf the issue is fluid. A drum of turnings straight off a machine is partly coolant, and you are being paid for the drum by weight. Let it drain properly and the same drum pays you for more metal and less liquid.
Fabrication offcuts
If you cut aluminium every day, the material is already sorted at the moment it hits the floor. That is the cheapest time to keep it separate, and it is why one labelled bin per profile type beats any amount of sorting later.
What we see most often is a single skip with extrusion, sheet, a few steel brackets and site rubbish in it. That gets priced as a mixed load, which is always the lowest number available for the metal in it.
What a mixed skip really costs
Take a skip with extrusion, sheet and a bit of cast in it, plus the usual site rubbish. Sorted, each of those three is a different rate and the extrusion carries the load. Unsorted, the whole skip is quoted as mixed aluminium, which sits near the bottom of the three.
On a small clearance that gap is not worth an afternoon of anyone's time. On a fabrication shop producing the same offcuts every week, it adds up quickly, and the fix is one bin instead of one skip. That is the entire decision.
The other cost of a mixed skip is slower loading. A load that has to be picked through takes longer to weigh and longer to move, and on a site with a handover date that time is not free either.
Site aluminium at handover
End of project clearances usually have three things: leftover profile from the fabrication package, offcuts from install, and removed temporary works. It is worth agreeing early who owns the surplus, because on a lot of sites that is never written down and the material sits until somebody clears it in a hurry.
Windows and curtain wall removed during a refurbishment are a different job. Glass has to come out first, and that changes both the labour and the price.
Getting a real number
Photos, a rough weight, and whether it is sorted. You get a rate per grade if it is separated, or one price for the load if it is not. Everything is weighed in front of you, and nothing is deducted afterwards.
We collect across Abu Dhabi from the yard in Musaffah M42. See what we buy, or tell us what is on site.
Common questions
Do you buy painted or anodised aluminium?
Yes. A coating is thin and does not change what the metal is, so powder coated window sections are still good extrusion. What does affect the price is steel screws, rubber gaskets, thermal break plastic and glass left in frames.
Is composite panel worth anything?
ACP cladding has value but nothing near solid sheet, because it is a thin aluminium skin over a plastic core. It is quoted separately rather than mixed in with sheet.
Do you take aluminium windows with the glass still in?
The glass has to come out first. That changes the labour and the price, so tell us at the quote stage whether the frames are stripped or not.
How should aluminium swarf be stored?
Drained, and away from steel swarf. A drum straight off the machine is partly coolant, and since you are paid by weight, letting it drain means more of that weight is metal.
