Copper Wire Thieves

Just the labor involved in cleaning all that insulation off so it will actually be worth a buck at a scrap yard isn’t worth it. But tweekers do what tweekers do.

 

You just burn off the casings in a fire, the wire won’t melt. Just have the fire at night, it’s a lot of black smoke.


So I’ve been told

 

Most places around here won’t buy it burned.

 

First I have heard of that, then again it’s been more than thirty years since I was near to those sorts of shenanigans. Then it sure would be a lot of work to strip

 

I work at a metal recycling yard, we buy wire like that all the time "dirty copper". You will get a lower price but when its free you probably dont care. Of course, we also consider what we buy from who....but there is a metal yard that will buy it.

We then resell it as "dirty copper" to mostly India. No stripping of wire or any thing beyond unloading the seller and then adding it to the pile to be baled and shipped.