If scrap metal is one of the by-products that your industrial business generates when you make your goods, and you have no need for surplus metal supplies and want to find some alternative way to remove these materials from your premises, the advice here might help you.

1. Consider donating some of it to a community of artists in your area

The industrial scrap metal that you view as an annoyance could be very useful to some artists. People who make sculptures, art installations, or who use multi-media to make their artistic works often incorporate scrap metal into their pieces and end up producing wonderful art out of this seemingly mundane material. However, a lot of artists struggle to source sufficient quantities of this metal for their work (especially when they want to make very large pieces of art) and will often end up visiting landfills and scrap yards, or doing some dumpster diving to get the amount of scrap metal they need.

As such, you would be doing the artists who use this material a huge favor (and sparing them some very unpleasant landfill visits) by donating some of it to them. Provided you have not used toxic industrial chemicals on this scrap metal, it should be safe for you to give this to any local artists who want it. Other than ensuring that it is reasonably clean, you do not have to prepare the scrap metal in any way before giving it away. Additionally, there is no need to drop it off at the local arts center or artists' hangout spot; instead, you can simply publish a notice online, indicating that any artists who want this material can collect it from your industrial premises during a stated timeslot.

2. Hand the remaining scrap metal over to a recycling business

Unless you have a huge artist community nearby or a particularly prolific sculptor in your area who uses a lot of this material, you won't be able to get rid of all of this excess scrap metal by donating it to local artists. This is why you should consider working with an industrial scrap metal recycling center close to your premises, you should have them pick up the remaining metal.

Recycling what is left of the scrap metal after making your donations will create more space in your dumpsters, decrease the carbon footprint generated by your business activities (which is important, as industrial businesses often have higher carbon footprints than many other enterprises) and perhaps even impress members of your client base who admire and prefer to work with eco-friendly companies.