Scrap Metal Prices Rise and Salvage Yards Fill with Stolen Aluminum Beer Kegs

Scrap metal prices have reached an all time high recently and the more money that the scrap yards are willing to pay for the scrap metal, the more aluminum beer kegs keep showing up. An aluminum beer keg is now somewhat of a commodity item when it comes to salvage yards and the scrap metal prices they are willing to pay. An aluminum keg which was once a worthless item has quickly become a payoff to the eyes of the beholder.

Scrap metal prices have been steadily rising over the past 5 years and some of the things that have been popping up in salvage yards would alarm you. An aluminum beer keg that would typically be rented and then returned to the vendor is now a high value item at the salvage yards. Scrap metal prices are so high that people are bringing hundreds of thousands of aluminum beer kegs to salvage yards across the country for scrap metal refunds. These refunds will range in value depending on the weight of the item.

Most salvage yards have predetermined scrap metal prices that range from just pennies all the way up to dollar amounts depending on the type of metal. Typically, copper get the highest refund at salvage yards, followed closely by aluminum. Clean aluminum such as the aluminum that is used to make a beer keg is worth just under $1 per pound at most salvage yards. This may not seem like a high offering until you actually do the math...

Beer keg weighs about 40 pounds and scrap metal prices for aluminum are about $1 per pound so, the average beer keg can be scrapped at a salvage yard for about $40. Take 2 or 3 in and you walk away with just over one hundred dollars...for nothing!

High scrap metal prices have provoked some people to take extreme actions when it comes to returning aluminum beer kegs to their rightful owners. An empty keg that was once worth nothing to the average person is now worth about $40, and in tough times...$40 seems like a nice chunk of change. Many wholesalers and beer keg vendors have began to put tracking devices on the keg itself to keep from them disappearing.

A tracking device on a beer keg? Absolutely, when a beer keg is worth $40 to salvage yards at scrap metal prices, it is important to keep tabs on all of them. Companies have already lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the beer keg industry just because the salvage yards have continued to raise scrap metal prices and the kegs have continued to come up missing. Hopefully with the installation of the new tracking GPS style devices on every beer keg that leaves the warehouse the rising scrap metal prices offered at salvage yards will no longer play a role in the deposit amount that the consumer must pay for a keg of beer.

It once cost only about $20 as a deposit on the keg when a customer purchased a keg of beer. Due to rising scrap metal prices and the number of beer kegs that have been stolen over the past few years, the deposit is now up to about $100 per keg of beer and this rate has been on a steady rise. It's just too bad that all consumers have to pay the price of the few that choose to steal!