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Old Keys
Kerbside collection: check your council
Kerbside rules differ across New Zealand — bins, crates and accepted materials all vary — so your council's own guide is the only reliable answer for where this goes at home.
Find your councilDrop-off Location
This item can also be taken to specialised drop-off locations, which may be required for large quantities.
Impact: If discarded in landfills, metal keys contribute to metal waste and may leach harmful substances into the environment. Recycling or reusing keys helps conserve natural resources.
Did you know? Keys are often made from recyclable metals like brass or steel. Recycling these metals saves energy and reduces the need to mine for new resources.
Your council is the authoritative source for local collection rules.
In short
Old keys are brass, steel or nickel — genuinely valuable scrap metal, and endlessly recyclable. What they are not is kerbside recycling material: a loose key is far too small for sorting machinery and will simply fall through. Collect them in a jar and take the lot to a scrap metal dealer or a metal recycling point. Electronic key fobs are a different problem, because they contain a battery.
What it's made of
What something is made from is what decides where it can go — this is usually the reason an item can't be recycled.
- Most house keys are brass — an alloy of copper and zinc — which is why they are yellow and do not rust.
- Some keys are nickel silver or plated steel.
- Car key fobs contain a circuit board and a coin battery, which is what makes them e-waste rather than scrap metal.
- Keyrings and tags are usually steel, plastic or leather, and are best separated off.
Before you get rid of it
- Separate plain metal keys from anything electronic. A fob with a battery in it must not go in with scrap metal.
- Take off plastic tags, leather fobs and paper labels.
- Collect keys in a jar rather than disposing of them one at a time — a handful is worth a dealer's time, a single key is not.
- Take the collection to a scrap metal dealer or a metal recycling drop-off. Use WasteMate's scrap metal listings to find one near you.
Common mistakes
- Dropping loose keys into the kerbside recycling bin. Small dense items fall through the screens at sorting facilities, and stray metal can damage equipment — it is one of the reasons small metal items are excluded.
- Binning an electronic fob with the battery still inside. Lithium and coin cells cause fires in rubbish trucks and at waste facilities, and those fires are increasingly common.
- Throwing out keys that still work. Padlock and cabinet keys in particular are worth keeping or passing on.
- Assuming keys are worthless. Brass is one of the more valuable common scrap metals by weight.
Better than binning it
- Scrap metal dealers buy brass, and a jar of old keys is real money rather than a token amount.
- Keys are a staple of craft and jewellery making, and schools and community art groups often take them.
- Keep any key you cannot identify until you are certain — a replacement cut from an original is far cheaper than a new lock.
What happens to it
Brass and steel can be melted down and reformed indefinitely without losing quality, which is why there is a commercial market for them and why dealers will pay for scrap. Recycled brass takes a fraction of the energy that producing new copper and zinc does. A key that reaches a dealer genuinely re-enters the metal supply; a key that is thrown away is simply lost.
Questions people ask
Can keys go in the recycling bin?
No. They are too small for the sorting screens at a recycling facility and will fall through with the fine material, and loose metal is a hazard to the equipment. Take them to a scrap metal dealer instead — that is where they actually get recycled.
Are old keys worth any money?
Brass is one of the more valuable everyday scrap metals, so a decent jar of keys is worth taking to a dealer. A single key is not worth a trip. Prices move with world metal markets, so ask for the current rate on the day.
What do I do with an electronic car key fob?
Treat it as e-waste, not scrap metal, because of the battery inside. If you can remove the coin cell, batteries go to a battery drop-off and the rest goes to an e-waste recycler. Never put a fob with a battery still in it into a rubbish or recycling bin.
What about keys with a plastic head?
Pull or cut the plastic off if it comes away easily and recycle the metal part as scrap. If it will not separate, most dealers will still take it — the plastic is a small fraction of the weight.