I have read news reports about thieves stealing cat converters from parked vehicles and selling them to recyclers for cash, so they obviously have some value. To replace a stolen converter it might cost hundreds of dollars for an exact match or a bit over $100 for a generic.
The wrecking yards told me that it was against Federal law to sell used cat converters off wrecked vehicles to consumers, with a HUGE fine. So it was just about impossible to cheaply replace a bad converter. With one older, low value car I had, I ended up breaking up the plugged ceramic inside the converter case, removing the ceramic and then replacing the case in the exhaust system. I live outside the area that requires inspection, so I didn"t worry about the fact that it probably would not pass. Legal? Nope, but that car only ran about 10k more miles anyway.
A catalytic converter does have a small amount of platinum and maybe other rare expensive metal in it. That metal can be recovered and reused whatever it is needed, but I would guess the recovery process is quite involved, and only practical on a large scale. So it probably should go to a recycler that can sell it to a company that has a system to recover the rare metal. There is only so much of those rare metals available, so it probably should be recovered rather than just sending it to a landfill somewhere.
I would suggest trying to sell the converter to a wrecking yard or recycling center. I would not expect to get a lot for it--maybe $10-$20. Or maybe they would not give me anything. If so, I would just leave it there and hope that it would eventually be properly processed.
I try to recycle things I don"t need or want, just to get rid of them. Newspapers, magazines, old batteries and whatnot. It just seems like the right thing to do. I do keep a bunch of scrap metal, since sometimes I have found uses for it.
But I don"t think I would ever need an old catalytic converter! Good luck!
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Today's Featured Article - A Lifetime of Farm Machinery - by Joe Michaels. I am a mechanical engineer by profession, specializing in powerplant work. I worked as a machinist and engine erector, with time spent overseas. I have always had a love for machinery, and an appreciation for farming and farm machinery. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Not a place one would associate with farms or farm machinery. I credit my parents for instilling a lot of good values, a respect for learning, a knowledge of various skills and a little knowledge of farming in me, amo
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