You finally cleared out the garage. There are old aluminum gutters, a length of copper pipe, a dead dryer and a box of mystery hardware from the basement. Now it’s all sitting in the driveway, and the question is where it goes.
If you live in Smithtown, Brookhaven or Islip, the town probably has an answer, and it’s free. That’s a fine answer for some of your pile. For the rest, free means handing over metal that has real value per pound. Here’s how to tell which is which, and where each load should go on Long Island.
What Do Smithtown, Brookhaven And Islip Take For Free?
Short answer: usually yes, and usually for free. Smithtown runs a Municipal Services Facility in Kings Park where homeowners can bring metal at no charge. The posted schedule runs Tuesday through Saturday and wraps up by mid-afternoon. Hazardous waste isn’t accepted, and contractors can’t dump construction debris there.
Brookhaven handles everyday recycling differently. Its mandatory CURB program collects on Wednesdays, with paper and cardboard one week and plastic and metal the next. “Metal” at the curb means cans and containers, though. Aluminum siding or an old water heater needs a drop-off site, like Brookhaven’s facility in Yaphank, or a scrap yard. Islip sets its own rules too.
None of the town pages we reviewed mention paying you for what you bring. That’s no knock on the towns. They run a disposal service, not a buying operation. If you want to know your town’s exact rules and hours on Long Island, call ahead: Smithtown at 631-269-6600, Brookhaven at 631-451-6222, and Islip at 631-224-5640.
Is Free Town Drop-Off The Same As Getting Paid For Scrap Metal?
This is where people leave money in the driveway. A town drop-off keeps metal out of the trash and costs you nothing, and it does that job well. But metal isn’t all worth the same. Aluminum, copper and brass, the non-ferrous group, carry real value by the pound. Plain steel is worth far less. Toss everything into one free drop-off and your valuable pieces get the same send-off as the junk.
Picture a typical Long Island cleanout. A bathroom gets gutted in Smithtown and out comes a run of copper pipe. A Brookhaven homeowner swaps old aluminum gutters and window frames for new ones. An Islip garage holds a decade of dead appliances and extension cords. Parts of each of those piles are worth a trip to a yard, and the town has no reason to pull them out for you.
A scrap yard weighs what you bring, sorts it by type, and pays for what has value. We’re primarily a non-ferrous recycler, and aluminum is our specialty, so this is the material we’re built around. We’re also a true industry wholesaler, which means we buy from other recyclers and government entities around the country. A bigger market gives us room to be competitive, and customers tell us they’re happy with our pricing on Long Island and in Nassau County.
Scrap prices move with the market, so we won’t quote a number in a blog post. A phone call gets you today’s answer.
None of this means every pile belongs at a yard. A bag of soda cans and a few tin trays can go to the curb. Be honest about how much you have and what kind of metal it is, and the choice gets easy.
What If You’re A Contractor Or Business Owner On Long Island?
Town drop-off sites are built for residents, hours are limited, and Smithtown’s facility specifically doesn’t accept contractor construction debris. If you run a renovation crew, manage rentals, clear out estates or close up a small shop, you may have been turned away at a gate. Or you may have pulled up after it already closed for the day.
That’s a real problem if your workday ends at 3:30. We open at 7:00 a.m. Monday through Friday and close at 4:45 p.m. On Saturdays we’re open from 7:00 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. We work with walk-in customers as well as industrial and government accounts, so a truckload of metal off a job site is nothing unusual for us.
If hauling is the obstacle, ask us about pickup. We offer it for non-ferrous metals throughout Suffolk County and Nassau County. A load of old radiators isn’t anyone’s idea of a good Saturday, and it doesn’t have to be yours. We serve customers from Great Neck and Hewlett Harbor in Nassau to Orient and East Hampton out east on Long Island.
Before you load anything, call the town. Rules and hours differ from one town to the next and they change. Five minutes on the phone beats driving across Long Island with a full truck bed and finding the gate closed.
How To Sort Scrap Metal Before You Haul It
Sorting sounds like a chore until you see what it does. Most Long Island cleanouts end up as three piles. Cans and food containers go to the curb, rinsed out and ready for your town’s program. Bulky, low-value steel and mixed odds and ends can go to the town facility. Clean aluminum, copper and brass are the pile you keep aside.
That last pile is where a little effort pays off. Dirt, plastic and mixed metals make a load harder to value. Wipe off the obvious grime, pull off what plastic you can, and keep each type of metal separate. You don’t need to polish anything. You just want to hand over a pile that’s easy to read.
How Do I Tell Aluminum, Copper And Brass From Steel?
Grab a magnet off the fridge. Steel and iron stick to it, while aluminum, copper and brass don’t. That one test sorts most of a garage in a few minutes. It’s a good starting point, not a lab result, but it gets you most of the way.
After that, trust your eyes and your hands. Aluminum is light for its size and silver-gray, and it turns up in gutters, siding, window frames and ladders. If you live near the water in Islip or along the North Shore, old boat and dock hardware may belong in this pile too.
Copper has the reddish color of an old penny and shows up in plumbing pipe and wire. Brass is yellow-gold and usually hides in fittings, valves and faucets.
Appliances, radiators and electric motors are mixed bags. They have steel shells, and they often have something more valuable inside. Don’t try to take them apart unless you know what you’re doing. Bring them as they are and tell us what you’ve got.
Strip off what you can before you leave home, like plastic, rubber, wood and caked-on dirt. And don’t toss a copper elbow into the aluminum bin. Keeping types separate is the easiest way to avoid confusion at the scale.
If you’re not sure what something is, bring a sample or call us. We handle non-ferrous metal every day and can tell you what you have. We’d rather you ask first than haul the wrong pile halfway across Suffolk County.
What Happens When You Bring Scrap Metal To Our Yard In Holbrook?
Less than you’d expect, and nothing scary. You pull into 1100 Lincoln Ave. in Holbrook, in central Suffolk County and a reasonable drive from Smithtown, Brookhaven and Islip. Your metal gets weighed on precise scales, since fair weights are where fair pricing starts. Customers have called our yard the cleanest scrap yard they’ve seen. We take that as a compliment, because scrap yards don’t have the best reputation.
Yes, you’ll need photo ID. New York yards are expected to copy a seller’s driver’s license or state ID and keep purchase records. It isn’t suspicion, it’s the law. If a yard never asks for ID, that’s the one to worry about.
You don’t need to be a business. Homeowners are welcome, and regulars get free scratch-offs. Customers also mention our staff by name, which tells you how the first visit usually goes.
Prices change with the market, so call us at 631-567-2727 before you load the truck. We don’t publish per-pound prices because they’d be out of date by the time you read them.
We started in Hewlett, in Nassau County, in 1955, and we’ve been on five acres in Holbrook since 1970. We’ve worked with government accounts since the 1980s. Over 50 years in, we still enjoy a good question about a pile of old pipe.
Where To Take Scrap Metal On Long Island: Your Next Step
The town is a good place for cans, bulky steel and mixed leftovers. It’s free, it’s close, and nobody needs to be talked into using it. But clean aluminum, copper and brass have value, and the town drop-off isn’t set up to pay you for it. Sort your piles first, then decide where each one goes.
If you’re a contractor, landlord or anyone the town gate doesn’t serve, a scrap yard is probably your best option anyway. Our early weekday hours, Saturday morning hours and Suffolk County pickup for non-ferrous metals are built for those situations.
Call Crestwood Scraps today at 631-567-2727 to find out what your metal is worth before making the trip.
