Copper
Old cable, manufacturing offcuts, transformer windings, busbars, motors.
$100k to $10M+ annually
A private bidding desk for industrial sellers.
Your scrap is worth more than your recycler pays.
Most plants sell to the one recycler down the road, who has every reason to pay less and no reason to mention it. Our AI sizes up your material and our outreach engine puts it in front of a network of bulk buyers who bid against each other. For most sellers, that is $30,000 to $300,000 a year they were not getting.
01 / The Premium
You are not underpaid because your scrap is cheap. You are underpaid because no one is competing for it.
Most industrial material is sold to one local recycler, or listed on a marketplace where the price sinks to the floor. We do the opposite. Our AI builds a priced profile of your material, our software emails it to every qualified buyer in the network at once, and they bid each other up. The price climbs because, for once, the buyers have to compete for it.
One buyer
Sets your price
Buyers competing
The price climbs
01
The whole network, at once
Your material reaches every qualified buyer in the network in a single move, the way no plant could on its own.
02
Competition on every load
Buyers bid against each other, and the highest number wins. Convenience does not get a vote.
03
Your real price in days
The bidding wraps in days. You stop guessing what your material is worth.
02 / The Benchmark
A few cents a pound is six figures a year.
Your scrap is priced by one buyer who has no reason to pay more. Put the same material in front of the whole network and let them compete, and the winning bid almost always beats it. For most sellers, that gap is $30,000 to $300,000 a year.
You see every bid, the exact price, and the math behind it. The money was there the whole time. You just could not see the market.
The simplest way to see it
Selling scrap to one recycler is selling your car to the first dealer who makes an offer. We run the auction. We put your material in front of the whole market at once and let them bid it up.
Your recycler current
$0.62 / lb
Buyer A
$0.68 / lb
Buyer C faster pickup
$0.70 / lb
Buyer B best bid
$0.72 / lb
Same material. $0.10 a pound between the buyer you have and the buyer who wants it most.
+$0.10 / lb × 80,000 lb / mo = +$8,000 / mo
+$96,000
Recovered every year, on one stream. Across a plant's streams, the gap runs $30,000 to $300,000 a year.
Before
One recycler sets your price, because you never see the rest of the market.
After
Buyers compete for your material. You set the terms, with the numbers in hand.
See the gap on your own material, in dollars.
03 / The Problem
You are underpaid for two reasons, and neither is your fault.
No one is competing
- One recycler, chosen years ago, is your entire market.
- No other buyer is ever asked to beat their price.
- You cannot see what the rest of the market would pay.
- Convenience quietly costs more than it saves.
Your scrap is never marketed
- It leaves as "copper" or "aluminum," with no real profile and no real price attached.
- Buyers who would pay a premium never hear about it.
- Grade, freight, and payment terms never get negotiated.
- The recycler keeps a spread you never knew existed.
Most recyclers are quietly counting on both. We change both. We package your material so buyers take it seriously, and we make them bid against each other for it.
What your one buyer pays
What buyers pay when they compete
+10% to 30%For most sellers, that gap is $30,000 to $300,000 a year, on the exact same scrap.
Scrap prices vary by 10 to 30% between buyers in the same market. The U.S. scrap industry is so fragmented that no single buyer holds more than 5% of it, and competitive bidding consistently lifts prices by 5 to 20%.
Sources: industry scrap pricing data; IBISWorld; Aberdeen Group reverse-auction research.
04 / The ELO Model
Your scrap, in front of the entire market, in days.
An introduction to one buyer is worth very little. The work is profiling the material, pricing it, reaching every qualified buyer at once, and running a real bid. We do all of it, and we do it again every month.
- 01
Your material, profiled by AI
Our AI builds a precise, priced profile: type, grade, weight, location, packaging, contamination, and what the live market pays.
- 02
Your profile reaches the whole network
Our proprietary outreach software puts a blind profile in front of every qualified buyer at once. Your identity stays hidden until a buyer signs an NDA.
- 03
Buyers compete, in days
Qualified buyers bid against each other on grade, metal value, freight, processing cost, and payment terms. The whole thing usually wraps inside a week.
- 04
You take the top bid, in writing
You see every offer and the math behind it. Each load is documented: grade, weight, price formula, pickup, payment terms, and fee.
- 05
Reporting and benchmarking
Monthly price benchmarks, bid history, pickup tracking, and payment performance.
- 06
It repeats every month
The same process runs on your next load, and across your other sites and materials.
Put your material through the same process.
05 / Material Streams
Whatever your plant produces, we put it to the bid.
From copper to factory offcuts. Each card shows what a year of that stream is typically worth.
Aluminum
Extrusion scrap, frames, machining chips, aerospace and auto offcuts.
$100k to $10M+ annually
Ferrous
Demolition steel, machinery, beams, structural and factory offcuts.
$100k to $20M+ annually
Stainless and Nickel Alloy
Refinery and chemical equipment, aerospace alloys, high nickel grades.
$250k to $10M+ annually
Factory Production Scrap
Recurring offcuts, trimmings, rejects, stamping and cable scrap.
$250k to $50M+ annually
Motors, Transformers, Equipment
Electric motors, transformers, switchgear, pumps, plant machinery.
$100k to $5M+ per project
Specialist streams. Certified partners only.
- E-waste and circuit boards
- Lithium-ion and black mass
- Lead-acid batteries
See what your streams are actually worth.
06 / Why Not a Marketplace
A marketplace lists your material. We sell it for more.
A marketplace helps people find each other. It does not handle the eight things that decide how much you actually get paid.
01
Grade
Marketplace
You post "copper scrap." Buyers cannot price that.
ELO
We write a precise material profile, so serious buyers bid real numbers.
02
Buyer trust
Marketplace
Buyers wade through fake, tiny, and contaminated listings.
ELO
We filter the junk. Buyers see only real, documented material.
03
Confidentiality
Marketplace
Your facility, volume, and current buyer all go public.
ELO
A blind profile. Your identity stays private until an NDA is signed.
04
Logistics
Marketplace
A match, with no bins, no routes, no reliable pickup.
ELO
We weigh the whole deal: price, pickup, bins, and payment speed.
05
Pricing formula
Marketplace
Quotes you cannot compare. Index minus what, after which deductions?
ELO
We turn every bid into one comparable number, after freight and deductions.
06
Your current recycler
Marketplace
Useless once you already have a buyer.
ELO
We show you exactly how much your current recycler is underpaying you.
07
Recurring streams
Marketplace
Built for one-off piles.
ELO
We keep the monthly stream competitive, and rebid it on a schedule.
08
Your leverage
Marketplace
Reveal yourself and a buyer can low-ball you, or go around you next time.
ELO
Buyers compete without ever knowing who you are, so no one can undercut you or pressure you on the next load.
And the fee.
A marketplace takes 5 to 13 percent of a public price. We charge a low fee on the higher price we get you.
Skip the listing. Run a real, competitive bid.
07 / For Sellers
For Sellers
The AI Scrap Audit.
Free, and quiet. Tell us what you produce and what you are paid now. We price it, put it to the whole network, and let buyers fight over it. You see the real top bid, and the money you had been giving away.
- An AI-priced profile of exactly what your material is worth
- Your scrap put in front of our entire buyer network at once
- A live, competitive bid that runs in days
- The $30,000 to $300,000 a year you were leaving behind
For Buyers
Qualified, recurring material.
Vetted and documented streams, by material and region, before they reach the open market. Access after you sign.
08 / Standards
Nothing moves without your say.
Every safeguard here is built around you: your identity, your ownership, and the buyers you already work with.
- Proof of ownership
- Verified before any material moves. No anonymous lots.
- Certified electronics partners
- R2 and e-Stewards recyclers for data-bearing and electronic assets.
- Hazmat-certified partners
- Licensed logistics and recyclers for battery and regulated streams.
- Confidentiality first
- A signed NDA before we share who you are or where you are.
- Transaction confirmations
- Issued on every load, every month.
- We never touch the material
- We arrange the sale on your behalf. We do not take title to your scrap or handle it ourselves.
09 / Our Team
We have sat on both sides of the trade.
ELO is run by metals and recycling operators who have priced, graded, shipped, and closed industrial material for decades. We know what your material should clear at, and which buyers will pay the most for it.
Behind every account is a private network of qualified buyers, and a team that does the work: profiling the material, running the bids, handling documentation and pickup, and reporting back every month.
Active across the largest U.S. scrap states
Texas Ohio Pennsylvania California Illinois
We focus on the states that produce the most industrial scrap, and place material with qualified buyers nationwide.
$150M+
In material moved by our desk
100+
Years of combined desk experience
180+
Qualified buyers in our network
40+
Recurring seller accounts
AI Scrap Audit
Find out what your scrap is worth. Our AI proves it.
Tell us about your material. We price it, take it to the buyers, and let them compete. Most sellers find $30,000 to $300,000 a year they had been missing. Free, and no obligation.
Direct
audit@elomaterials.groupHow the AI audit works
- 01
Our AI profiles your material and prices it against the live market.
- 02
Our outreach software puts a blind profile in front of every qualified buyer at once.
- 03
Buyers bid against each other, and the top number lands within days.
- 04
You see the top offer, the math, and exactly what you were leaving behind.