Scenario: a fleet has a bin of worn edges and a recycler’s offer. Short answer: carbide scrap is priced from tungsten and cobalt content and grade, not as steel scrap, so an offer is only comparable if you know what it assumes. A brazed edge has a steel body, which a recycler may treat differently from loose carbide.
What a recycler says drives price
Recyclers price on content and cleanliness, and both are under your control.
- DURIT, a carbide recycler, describes cemented carbide as tungsten carbide grains in a cobalt (or sometimes nickel) binder, with cobalt generally 5 to 15% and up to 30% in special grades.
- It states the purchase price is based on current market prices for tungsten (or APT) and cobalt and on the material’s grade and purity.
- It notes that keeping grades separated has a positive effect on the purchase price.
- It describes recycling routes (a zinc process and an electrolytic process) suited to different cobalt contents.
Questions that make two quotes comparable
| Ask | Why |
|---|---|
| Is the price per kilogram of delivered weight, or of recovered tungsten? | Steel and braze metal on an edge add weight but not recoverable carbide |
| Do you accept carbide still brazed to steel, or must it be removed? | Separation labour and yield may change the offer |
| Is the price fixed, or tied to a benchmark on the day of receipt? | Prices can move between offer and weighing |
| Is final payment after inspection or analysis? | Some quotes are confirmed only after the lot is checked |
| Who pays freight, and what is the minimum lot? | A small lot can cost more to ship than it earns |
| Will you issue a weight and grade report? | You need it for your own records and audits |
Practical steps
Scrap value is real money, and most of it is lost when bins are mixed.
- Separate scrap by type: loose inserts, whole edges, steel off-cuts. Mixed bins are harder to price.
- Weigh on a calibrated scale and photograph the lot.
- Get at least two written quotes using the same questions.
- For a public agency, check the rules on disposing of surplus property before selling.
Boundary: I give no price per kilogram, because I found no verified current public price for plow-edge scrap. Offers vary by lot and day. DURIT is a commercial recycler, so treat its statements as one party’s description of its process.
Sources and further reading. External references are dated; where a figure is quoted, the link shows where it came from.
DURIT (carbide recycler): Carbide Recycling | Sell Used Carbide Tools (accessed 2026-10-24) ↗Carbide Recycling and Raw Material Supply Stability ↗Refurbished vs New Plow Blades: When Rework Competes on Cost ↗Tungsten carbide inserts for snow plow edges ↗Reading NOAA’s 2026-27 Winter Outlook as a Blade Buyer: What It Can and Cannot Tell You ↗
