TL;DR
Copper is the one plumbing material with enough scrap value to change how you handle a job, while PEX, CPVC, and PVC have essentially none and go out as ordinary debris. Clean copper tubing trades at the highest per-pound grade at scrap yards. A repipe on an average house yields 40 to 120 pounds of copper.
That is real money, and it is the reason copper disappears off unattended job sites. It is also why plumbers almost always take the copper with them unless you ask.
What Copper Grades Mean
Scrap yards do not pay one price for copper. They pay by grade, and the grade depends on cleanliness.
Number 1 copper. Clean, unalloyed tubing and bus bar with no solder, no paint, no fittings, and no attachments. Bright or lightly oxidized. Highest price.
Number 2 copper. Tubing with solder joints, brass fittings, paint, or heavy corrosion. Typically pays less per pound than number 1.
Light copper. Thin gauge material, gutter stock, sheet. Lower still.
Copper-bearing scrap. Motors, radiators, and mixed assemblies where copper has to be recovered. Paid at a fraction of clean copper.
Residential water pipe is type L or type M tubing, and how it grades depends almost entirely on whether the solder joints and brass fittings are cut off. Cutting them off is slow. Leaving them on drops the whole load to number 2. Brass fittings are worth their own pile, since brass prices above steel and below copper. How yards evaluate material is covered in our guide to scrap metal value in junk removal.
Is Sorting Worth Your Time?
Run the arithmetic before committing to an evening with a tubing cutter.
Copper tubing weighs roughly these amounts per foot:
| Tubing size | Type L weight per foot |
|---|---|
| 1/2 inch | 0.28 to 0.30 pounds |
| 3/4 inch | 0.45 to 0.50 pounds |
| 1 inch | 0.65 to 0.70 pounds |
A whole-house repipe removing 200 feet of half inch and 80 feet of three quarter inch is roughly 95 pounds. At number 1 prices that is a meaningful sum. The difference between number 1 and number 2 on that load might be 30 to 60 dollars worth, which is maybe two hours of cutting.
For most people that is a marginal trade. For a plumber doing repipes weekly it is obviously worth it, which is why they keep the copper.
The clearer win is simply keeping copper out of the trash load. Even at number 2 prices, a bucket of copper delivered to a yard is money, and it is weight that is not being charged to you at a landfill gate. Our comparison of junk removal versus a scrap metal yard covers when the trip is worth making.
PEX Pays Nothing, and That Is Fine
PEX is cross-linked polyethylene. The cross-linking is what makes it durable and flexible, and it is also what makes it a thermoset for practical purposes: it cannot be melted and reformed like ordinary polyethylene.
There is no residential recycling stream for PEX. Curbside programs reject it, plastics recyclers reject it, and the fittings crimped onto the ends make it a mixed material besides. The same is true of CPVC and PVC drain pipe, both technically recyclable and practically not, with solvent-welded fittings and glue residue making them worse.
So the plumbing debris pile splits cleanly in two. Metal goes to a yard, plastic goes to landfill as construction debris, and there is no third option worth chasing. One exception: brass crimp rings and shutoff valves are metal and do have value. Cut them off the tube ends and put them in the brass bucket.
What Comes Out of a Typical Repipe
A whole-house repipe produces a predictable mix: copper tubing cut into 2 to 4 foot pieces, brass fittings and shutoffs, old galvanized steel from earlier partial repipes, cast iron drain pipe in older houses, and then the plastics, meaning PEX, CPVC, PVC, and ABS drain line.
Cast iron deserves its own mention because people underestimate it. A single 5 foot section of 4 inch soil pipe weighs 40 to 60 pounds. A house full of it is several hundred pounds of ferrous scrap and the heaviest thing in the pile.
Bathroom gut jobs generate all of this at once alongside tile and fixtures, and the full sequencing is in our guide to bathroom demolition debris.
What Plumbing Debris Removal Costs
Industry Baseline Range
| What is being priced | Published national range |
|---|---|
| Typical junk removal job, per load | $150 to $350 per load (most homeowners); $70 to $570 overall |
| Minimum load (up to 60 cu ft) | $70 to $100 |
| 1/4 load (80-120 cu ft) | $100 to $150 |
| 1/2 load (180-240 cu ft) | $200 to $300 |
Source: HomeGuide, "Junk Removal Prices" national cost guide.
These are industry baseline ranges for planning only and may not reflect Otesse's price. Otesse pricing is calculated for your specific home and ZIP code, so enter your ZIP in the price box on this page for your instant price.
Current Market Reality
Scrap prices move with commodity markets and can shift noticeably within a single year, so any per-pound figure is a snapshot rather than a promise. Call a yard the week you plan to go. On the disposal side, plumbing debris is light and awkward rather than heavy, so it tends to price on truck space unless cast iron is involved, at which point it becomes a weight job. Crawlspace and slab work adds significant labor. Directions on finding a yard and what to expect at the scale are in our guide to where to take scrap metal.
What moves the price
| Scope | How it moves the price |
|---|---|
| Small pile of offcuts, staged | Lowest of these |
| Single bathroom plumbing debris | Low |
| Whole-house repipe debris | In between |
| Repipe plus cast iron drain removal | Highest, a weight job |
| Clean copper tubing at a scrap yard | Pays you, and offsets part of the haul |
| Brass at a scrap yard | Pays you, at a lower grade than copper |
Every repipe is different, so the real number depends on the volume, the cast iron and the access. Enter your ZIP in the price box on this page for your instant price.
Practical Handling Tips
Bucket the copper. A five gallon bucket holds a surprising amount of cut tubing and it is easy to carry and impossible to spill across a job site. Keep brass in its own container, because it is small, valuable per pound, and easy to lose in a pile of steel.
Bundle the PEX. Coiled and zip tied, a house worth of PEX is compact. Loose, it springs and tangles and fills a truck bed.
Secure the copper if the job runs more than a day. A visible pile of copper on an open site is a theft target, and it is the one material there worth stealing.
FAQ
How much is scrap copper pipe worth?
Clean copper tubing trades at the highest per-pound grade, with tubing carrying solder joints and brass fittings grading lower. Prices track commodity markets and change often, so call a local yard before making the trip.
Can PEX pipe be recycled?
No. PEX is cross-linked polyethylene, which cannot be remelted and reformed, and there is no residential recycling stream for it. Crimped brass fittings make it a mixed material as well. PEX goes out as construction debris.
Should I cut the fittings off copper before scrapping it?
It depends on volume. Removing solder joints and brass fittings upgrades the load from number 2 to number 1, which pays more per pound. On a small pile the labor exceeds the gain. On a large repipe it can be worth an hour or two.
Is old galvanized or cast iron pipe worth anything?
Both are ferrous scrap and pay far less per pound than copper, but cast iron is heavy enough that the weight adds up. A house full of cast iron soil pipe can be several hundred pounds. It is also weight you avoid paying to landfill.
Do junk removal companies keep the scrap value?
Practices vary. Most full service haulers do not itemize scrap credit, but they generally price a metal-heavy load below an equivalent trash load because their own disposal cost is lower. Ask directly how metal is handled before booking.
Getting It Hauled Away
The copper is worth separating, the PEX is not worth thinking about, and the cast iron is heavier than it looks. Bucket the metal, coil the plastic, and keep the copper out of sight until it leaves. Our junk removal service can take it from there. Enter your ZIP in the price box to see which services are available at your address. Reach out to get a quote with a description of what is coming out.
