Recycling swarf?

Min is 90% aluminum with 9% steel and 1% brass. I have two orange 5gallon plastic buckets that receive the aluminum or steel. From there I dump the contents (aluminum) into large heavy wall garden bags. After I get several big bags of aluminum saved up I let my grand son haul it off to the local recycler. Any cash goes to the grandson sho is happy to collect it. Iron usually gets mulched into the mulch pile. I have a coffee can for brass/bronze, but have never filled it up yet.
 
I just put my swarf in the garbage can. I know it’s not the best green thing I can do.
 
Yesterday, I just took a trash can full of aluminum scraps and drops, plus a 5 gallon can of aluminum swarf to my local steel yard that buys scrap metal. I didn't expect to get much for it. I just hoped to pay for about half the gas I burned getting there. I ended up with $10, enough for the gas and then some.

I have a large flat baking pan under my lathe to retrieve the swarf. I keep a small trash bin at the end of my lathe stand that collects it.

I didn't really do it for the money. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
I used to have a friend who would smelt my aluminum swarf into billets in his kiln when firing pottery.

I don't make much scrap steel, so when I have a few pieces, I just leave it on the curb and scrap pickers will pick it up and sell it.
 
No such thing as scrap steel. You just might be able to use that piece someday.:)
 
There comes a time when you have more steel drops than places to put it.
 
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