Brake rotors are not replaced as often as brake pads, but they do eventually wear out. If you do your own brake work or if you own a mechanic shop, you might have a teetering stack brake rotors that needs tending to.
Can brake rotors be recycled? Yes, most brake rotors are fully recyclable, but you can’t just toss them in your regular recycling bin with your soda cans, at least not without checking with your waste management company first.
So if you can’t just throw them in the recycle bin, how do you go about recycling them? Keeping reading to find out how!
Recycling Brake Rotors
Broke rotors are recyclable and the process can be simple, but you do have to take the extra step of bringing them some place that recycles them.
Brake rotors do not contain any fluid or toxic elements that require special handling, like for example, a car battery, but their weight and size can damage to the machines that sort through your household recycling.
Most brake rotors are made of cast iron. Those that aren’t made of cast iron are made of other equally recyclable metals like steel and aluminum.
There is one exception. The only brake rotors you cannot recycle are carbon ceramic. Carbon ceramic rotors and pads cost at least $3,000 to $15,000 or more and are typically only found on high-end sports cars like a Ferrari or a Porsche.
Most of us are still using tried-and-true metal rotors.
Recycling Center
If you’re just looking to clear some space out of your garage, you can take your brake rotors to your local garbage transfer station or recycling center.
- Locate your nearest garbage transfer station or recycling center. You can check with your city or town hall for more information on where one of these is located.
- Call the recycling center before you load up your car or truck to be sure that they will take the brake rotors.
- Prepare your vehicle by laying something down, like flattened cardboard boxes, where you will place the rotors. This will help prevent damage to your car.
- Take your brake rotors to the recycling center.
- When you arrive, check with an employee about where to put them. Rules vary from center to center depending on how they sort and process the materials. Placing them in the wrong bin can sometimes cause big damage to the equipment they use.
Scrapyard
If you have a large number of brake rotors or other metal that need to be recycled, you can take them to a scrapyard and make some money in the process. It is a win-win situation. The brake rotors get recycled, and you get some spare cash.
If you don’t live close to a scrapyard, you may wonder if the trip will be worth it, but there is no way to know how much you can get without calling the scrapyard for details.
You can expect to get somewhere around $2 per rotor, but this can vary widely. The price you can get for your rotors depends on two things: the weight of the rotor and how much your local scrapyard offers for scrap metal.
How much the scrapyard pays per pound for your scrap depends upon a number of factors:
- The current market value of the type of metal
- The location of the scrapyard
- Industry demand
- Time of year
- The quantity of that material that they deal in.
The amount you can make per rotor also depends on how heavy the rotors are, and the weight of rotors also vary quite a bit.
Brake rotors can weigh anywhere from 15 to 40 pounds with some even heavier than that for larger vehicles. In general, the larger a vehicle is, the heavier the brake rotor you take off of it will be.
If you decide to take your brake rotors to a scrapyard, here is what you will need to do:
- Locate a scrapyard. A quick Google search will yield some results, but you can also check with your city or county waste management office. Smaller locations may be more difficult to find.
- Call the scrapyard. Some scrapyards will not take small quantities of metal. In addition, some states have laws requiring scrapyards to take your ID or other information. This is to discourage theft.
- Weigh how much scrap metal you have if you want to estimate how much money you will make when you get to the scrapyard. You may want to make sure the trip is worth it to you.
- At the scrapyard, they will weigh your collection of brake rotors. Some scrapyards use a car scale to weigh your vehicle when it comes in and then again once it is unloaded. This is how they determine how much your metal weighs. Some scrapyards have free standing scales they use to weigh the unloaded metal.
Craigslist
If you don’t want the trouble of loading the heavy rotors into your car or truck and driving them to the scrapyard which might be quite a trip depending on where you live, then you might try finding someone to take them away.
Plenty of people supplement their income by collecting unwanted scrap metal, and they are more than happy to take the rotor off your hands. You won’t usually make any money doing this, but there is nothing easier than having someone come to your house to pick up that stack of rotors.
If you want to go this route, you may be able to find someone on Craigslist, Facebook, or the classifieds posting that they will come to collect unwanted scrap metal. You could also post that you have scrap metal to be picked up, and someone will likely come and take it off your hands.
Can I Reuse my Rotors?
It was once a longstanding practice to resurface brake rotors one or two times before replacing them, but that is no longer standard practice.
The problem is that brake rotors are made thinner than they used to be, and the safety laws concerning them are stringent. Even one resurfacing can reduce the thickness of the rotor to the point where it is legally no longer usable.
The legal limit of a rotor is engraved on the side of the rotor. Just looking at your rotors, it may not seem like anything is wrong. Your mechanic will measure the rotor’s thickness using a brake rotor micrometer, and the thickness cannot even be a hair off.
On a practical level, the cost of the labor involved in resurfacing a rotor often exceeds the cost of replacing the rotor. It takes approximately 30 minutes per rotor to perform the resurfacing. Mechanics charge around $100 per hour for labor, and that is at the low end.
That means you would be paying at least $200 just to have all of the rotors resurfaced. New rotors vary in cost, but generally, you can get a new rotor for between $40-$70 per rotor, and then you also have the peace of mind that your rotors are in great condition.
Repurposing Your Old Rotors
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. How could you possibly repurpose a brake rotor?
If your old rotors aren’t rusty, they can be a great material for a DIY project. In my research, I found people using old brake rotors for all kinds of amazing and creative projects. A little ingenuity, spray paint, and elbow grease will take you a long way.
I even read about someone who melted down the rotor in their forge and used it to make something new. Now that is recycling!
Here are some other ideas people had:
- Dumbbells
- A base for a floor lamp
- Grinder stand
- Boat anchor
- Wall clock
- Metal sculpture base
- An edge for the garden
- A wind chime
- Wheel weights for a tractor
Do I Have to Recycle My Brake Rotors?
The short answer is no. Brake rotors are not toxic and could go into a landfill without being dangerous. When they aren’t installed, brake rotors are essentially just large hunks of metal.
But recycling isn’t such an inconvenience, and that hunk of metal will sit in a landfill for eternity. It is much better to recycle your old brake rotors if it is at all possible.