After replacing the motor in my kitchen’s stove hood, what do I do with the old one? It’s a nutone vp 300, if that makes any difference, about the size of a very large orange and 3-5 pounds of mostly metal. No, I’m not sure what kind, exterior is probably stainless, interior might be copper or lead. Obviously I could just toss it in the trash but I’d like to do the responsible thing. I already checked the website of my local disposal company but none of the categories fit. This is in the San Francisco Bay Area, since that will probably make a difference.
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It probably has some salvage value. A metal recycling company may pay a bit for it. I have a “junk man” who comes to my shop now and then to pick up scrap metal; perhaps you can find someone like that it in your area.
Most counties in the SF Bay Area are hip to recycling things other than newspapers, beer bottles and pop cans, and they do what’s called single stream recycling.
Just chuck that motor in the recycle bin and they’ll take care of it.
As a one-off salvage item, it’s not worth the gas to drive around to a metals recycler or motor shop. That 3 pounds is mostly steel, which will get you a penny or so a pound, copper is probably around $3 a pound, but only after you separate it from the steel. If anything, a metals recycler might give you a quarter for the whole thing.
