I've collected about a coffee can worth of spent primers since I started reloading a while ago, and I was wondering what other people do with them. Are they just trash? Hazardous trash like oil & paint? Or collect them and find a recycler?
Trash.
Trash , I dump my spent primer tray as I go. I have never heard of any hazardous materials in spent primers.
opinions vary, some say they can be recycled like other brass if the yard takes them
interesting discussion here:
http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=6&f=42&t=262636
I take mine to the scrap yard, they worth close to a buck a pound.
I reload, and pick up brass at the range, any thing that is reloadable get's either reloaded by me or saved for trading stock.
I put culled brass in a bucket and dump spent rifle and pistol primers in there too. After a trip to the scrap yard, a trip to the powder store is called for.
Modern shotshell primers are plated steel, and worth considerably less than brass primers. When in doubt whip out your magnet.
357 sig and 40 s&w mostly go to the scrap yard too, nobody want them bad enough to pay shipping.
Adding primers to concrete mix adds a decorative touch when used borders and mow strips ;D
I've been reloading for so long I can remember when CCI used to recycle their primer trays! Even had the restricted tour of the factory from the catwalk back in '72.
I save spent primers in old coffee cans and eventually transfer them to 5 gallon pails or drums and run them out to the salvage yard. They tag them as "sheet metal" and pay accordingly. :cool2: