Scrap metal collection and buying in Warrington
Warrington is still nicknamed the Wire, after the industry that once dominated it. We buy the town’s scrap cable, copper, stainless and steel from contractors and industry, and collect it from site.
- Licensed dealerA Wigan Council scrap metal site licence, on the public register.
- Paid by bank transferStraight into your account, with a weight and grade record for each load.
- Graded, not lumped inEach metal priced for what it is, not as the cheapest thing in the pile.
- Paperwork doneWaste transfer notes for every collection, so your records stay complete.
Wire-making dominated Warrington’s jobs for more than 170 years, which is why the town is still known as ‘the Wire’. In 1856 Rylands Brothers made ten tons of wire every week, and much of the barbed wire on the Western Front came from its works. Wire and cable still matter here, and the trades that install them today produce scrap with a ready market.
Resilient Contracting buys it from Warrington’s electricians, engineers, fabricators and demolition firms. We collect from site, with secure cages for cable and non-ferrous metals and roll-on roll-off containers for heavy steel, and pay by bank transfer once each metal is graded. Whatever the size of the job, a few photos are enough for us to explain how to keep it sorted.
What we buy in Warrington
Scrap we buy from Warrington businesses
Cable, copper, brass, stainless, swarf and steel, collected from sites in Warrington and the estates around it, graded and paid by bank transfer.
-
Scrap cable
SWA and power cable, copper and aluminium conductor runs, rewire offcuts and whole drums, sorted by type and paid for by bank transfer. Find out more -
Scrap copper
Bright wire, heavy copper, tube, pipe and mixed copper, each grade kept apart so you are paid for what it really is. Find out more -
Scrap stainless steel
Industrial stainless from plant, ducting, tanks and fabrication, sorted by grade so its nickel content counts. Find out more -
Scrap aluminium
Extrusions, sections, sheet, castings and turnings, kept clean and separate from steel and plastics. Find out more -
Scrap brass
Brass fittings, valves, castings and turnings, with steel and plastic parts removed so the brass is not downgraded. Find out more -
Scrap lead
Sheet lead, flashing and pipe from roofing, refurbishment and strip-out work, bought with full ID checks. Find out more -
Swarf recycling
Turnings and chips from lathes and machining centres, bought by metal, drained of coolant and collected in bins or skips. Find out more -
Scrap steel and iron
Structural steel, plate, cast iron, machinery and mixed ferrous scrap from industry, demolition and site clearance. Find out more -
Strip-out and decommissioning scrap
Plant rooms, stainless ducting, steelwork and cable runs from strip-outs and decommissioning, segregated on site and paid for. Find out more -
Scrap metal collection
Cages, bins, bulk bags and roll-on roll-off skips for business and trade scrap, collected, weighed, graded and paid for. Find out more -
Commercial waste brokerage
General waste, recycling, cardboard and the rest of your site’s waste arranged through registered collectors, alongside your scrap. Find out more
Where we collect in and around Warrington
Industrial estates and business areas we cover, including:
- Bank Quay
- Kingsland Grange
- Grosvenor Grange
- Risley Industrial Estate
- Taylor Business Park
- Burtonwood Industrial Estate
- Penketh Business Park
- Sankey Bridges
- Gatewarth Industrial Estate
- Bewsey Industrial Estate
- Palatine Industrial Estate
- Howley
- Barleycastle Trading Estate
- Long Lane Business Park
- Fiddlers Ferry
Not on the list? Call 01942 906041 with your postcode.
Fiddlers Ferry, Bank Quay and the working estates
The biggest scrap story in the borough is Fiddlers Ferry. The northern cooling towers came down in December 2023, and since December 2025 a demolition contractor has been taking out conveyors, the desulphurisation unit, precipitators and silos, with more demolition planned to make way for homes and employment land. Closer to the centre, Unilever’s powder factory at Bank Quay closed in 2020 after 135 years, though chemical production carries on beside it.
Away from the big sites, the scrap comes from estates such as Kingsland Grange near junction 21 of the M6, the Burtonwood estate on Phipps Lane near junction 8 of the M62, Risley and Taylor Business Park near junction 11, and Penketh Business Park on Liverpool Road. In units like these, sheet and plate offcuts, swarf, cable and copper pipe build up week after week.
How it works
From a phone call to money in the bank
Say what the metal is and give us a rough weight or a skip size. A photo or two speeds it up. You will know how it will be priced before anything moves.
Call or send photos
What the metal is, how it is mixed, roughly how much and where it is. A few photos usually tell us most of it.
Collection arranged
A one-off pick-up, or cages, bins or a skip on site so it can be kept apart as it comes out.
Weighed and graded
Each metal is weighed and graded for what it is, so clean copper is not paid as mixed scrap.
Paid by bank transfer
Payment against the weights and grades, with a waste transfer note for the load.
We’re working on an industrial demolition near Warrington. What should come out first?
The valuable metal, before the heavy steel. Cable, copper, brass, stainless and motors should be stripped out and caged during the soft strip, because once a structure is down they are buried in the steel and hard to recover. Structural steel can then go into roll-on roll-off containers, cut to a size we agree, with the paperwork for each load kept with the site’s waste records.
Our electrical firm in Warrington has power cable and data cable. Is the data cable worth anything?
Yes, though less per tonne. Data and telecom cable carries thin copper in a lot of plastic, so far less of its weight is metal than in a big power cable. Bag it on its own rather than mixing it in, and keep armoured power cable apart from unarmoured. Fibre-optic cable has hardly any copper in it, so keep it out of the scrap.
How do I get today’s price for my scrap?
Call 01942 906041 or send us a few photos through the quote form with a rough weight or volume. Scrap prices follow the metals markets and change from day to day, so we price on what you actually have at the time, by grade, rather than quoting a figure that could be out of date tomorrow.
How will we be paid? Can you pay cash?
By bank transfer. Paying cash for scrap metal has been illegal in England and Wales since the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, so any dealer still offering cash is breaking the law. You get a record of what was weighed, the grade and the price, so the payment is easy to reconcile in your accounts.
Do you collect from site?
Yes. We arrange collections from business and trade sites, and can leave cages, bins, bulk bags or a roll-on roll-off skip on site so metals are kept apart as they come out. Tell us what you produce and how much, and we will suggest the right set-up and collection frequency.
Nearby areas we cover
We buy and collect scrap across Wigan and the North West.
- St Helens7 miles from our Martland Park site
- Leigh8 miles from our Martland Park site
- WiganOur home town
- Skelmersdale4 miles from our Martland Park site
- Salford17 miles from our Martland Park site
- Bolton10 miles from our Martland Park site
- Manchester19 miles from our Martland Park site
- Liverpool16 miles from our Martland Park site
- Chorley7 miles from our Martland Park site
- Bury16 miles from our Martland Park site
- Preston14 miles from our Martland Park site
Sell your scrap
Sell your scrap in Warrington
Tell us what metal you have at your Warrington site, roughly how much and when it is ready. Photos help. We will come back with how it will be priced and collected.
- Call 01942 906041For today’s price and a collection
- Emailinfo@resilient-contracting.co.uk
- Our siteUnit 11 Otterswood Square, Martland Park, Wigan WN5 0LF