How to recycle, or otherwise not waste, used car parts?

Between regular preventative maintenance on a variety of cars, a few ongoing "track" builds, and just the random upgrade here and there, I end up with a lot of car parts that are no longer of use to me, not trash, but not worth selling. 

A few examples:

• Entire AC systems from three E46's. 
• Entire exhaust systems from same 3 E46's.
• Variety of brake rotors that definitely could be turned if one were so inclined.
• Stock heat exchanger from my CTS.
• Couple of stock BMW radiators. Some damaged, some not.
• Control arms from a handful of cars.
• Stock springs from a handful of cars
• Etc

I've tried putting most of the above on the Marketplace for FREE at various points and it just turns in 100 "is this available" messages, and that's about it. 

Any suggestions on how to keep them out of the landfill? It's mostly used stock parts, so not like it's going to be worth directly reinstalling on another car, but AC compressors, they can be rebuilt, right? But how to get them from my shop to somewhere that could use them is my question. Not looking for $$$ making solutions, just hate to trash stuff that might could be viable if rebuilt, reused or at least more selectively recycled than if I just toss it in the metal bin at work. 

Take then to your local independent BMW mechanic. People come in with messed up cars and can't always afford new parts, having used bits in known condition (not customer supplied) can be a lifesaver for someone trying to keep a car on the road

When you do run into "junk," do you have a local scrap yard that will get the metal to a recycle destination?

The undamaged stuff you could always put on an ebay auction with no reserve, just make sure to add a shipping cost so you don't end up actually losing money on it.

Instead of FB Marketplace, check out any regional areas of car specific forums. 

That's what I used to do. For example, years ago, when I was S52 swapping my E30 I needed to change the rear diff to a different ratio. I put it up on bimmerforums local to Oklahoma, told anyone who wants it, you have it for $100 you just have to pull it off the car (at the time 4.10 LSDs were going for close to $500), had a guy come a few days later and take it. 

i live in a sub in a decent neighborhood.  our trash collection is on Mondays. starting around 4PM Sunday, there are 3 or 4 scrappers who make the rounds.  I set stuff at the curb on Sunday afternoon and it's always gone before i take the trash out on Monday morning.

Thanks for suggestions. I live in a pretty rural area. I commute to "the city" but usually don't feel like toting greasy parts along with me, so local/weekend options for scrapyard or local indy shops are slim. 

eBay and such, I should do that: just post a no reserve auction starting at $0.01, put a legit shipping cost and "condition unknown" on much of it. Aside from the cost of my time to package/ship/deal with auction, that might be ticket for much of it. 

One thing I do have that I'm hoping to monetize is a few sets of m54b30 cats/manifolds. 

gixxeropa said:

The undamaged stuff you could always put on an ebay auction with no reserve, just make sure to add a shipping cost so you don't end up actually losing money on it.

I am really close to doing this, have a few parts that are automatic specific to my Civic (intake manifold and throttle body), I've listed it as fair as I think I could yet am not getting any offers...frustrating...

Somehow I am still shocked I was able to get rid of a cracked rear bumper for free all because I struggled to get rid of a 20 dollar replica WRX lip

I started using ebay years ago for the same reason. that turned into selling hundreds of items a year for me. the main reason I can afford my silly projects is that most of the parts I'm replacing are still worth a few bucks on the used market on eBay.  It's easier the closer you live to a post office.

Otherwise, most larger towns have metal recyclers that will pay scrap value for stuff that isn't worth anything. If you have enough scrap, separating by material is helpful. things like radiators, you'll need to cut the plastic end tanks off with a sawzall or something. 

I get a fair amount of scrap steel and aluminum at work.  I put it outside in a bin and I have a very happy scrap guy who comes and gets it.  If the bin gets full before he comes around, I load the bin on a trailer and take it to the recycler myself for a little coin.

Edit to add..... you can buy yourself a little cheapy propane forge and that will melt the aluminum.  Make fun stuff with it.

I concur with the scrapyard idea.  Metal stuff gets practically 100% recycled by the big scrap yards.  Virtually nothing goes to waste. 

It can be a pain if there's not one nearby.  And you want to accumulate and take it all at once - they'll pay you by the pound (or 10's of pounds), but if you're at 3.98#, you'll only get paid for 3#. At least that's the way it works by me.

Yeah just put it out for the scrappers. The cats are hard to scrap for money anymore thanks to thievery. But there are some online places that will pay you for them if you have documents proving you own the car.

I have a scrapyard close so I go about once a year and get $25-$50. But mostly I just like that it is all going to be recycled. 

i still ebay cats, but they have made it hard to ID them for accuracy. you can't list foreign/domestic, brand, model, year, etc. They removed on listing I had because I put from a GM Van. Now, I write the year/make/model/engine size on the cat in a paint pen and take a pic of it next to the vin of the vehicle and their filters don't catch the pics. Prices on cats are down quite a bit. Prius ones that were ebaying for $800+ are selling for under half that, so it may pay to hoard the cats and keep an eye on prices. I've got 2 parts cars with intact cats and plan to just stuff them under the shelf until prices go up. 

anything else around here gets recycled at the scrap yard. I have enough room that I kept my old trailer and built sides on it and when the steel is piled up to the top I take it in and get a couple hundred bucks. I have a relatively efficient one person operation and sell what I can but a lot of stuff that's even brand new just gets tossed in the recycle trailer or whatever corresponding material bin it's made from if it's got less value than my time to pack and ship it.

Our local landfill takes anything made of metal. You just drop it in the giant recycle bin. 

Either scrap metal, or goodwill at your local Indy repair shop. Or drifters. I've given a bunch of 350Z parts to my local drifter buddy. They go through parts so quickly, that they aren't real picky about condition. 

Make a list and post up here? Free but has to take all of it?    Someone building a challenge car may want some/all of it. 

Put it all at the curb, with a "FOR SALE - $50" sign on it.

It'll all be gone in the morning. The sign, too.