Cable Stripping: When It's Worth Your Time and When It Isn't

Every electrician has had the argument in the yard: strip the cable or sell it with the sheath on. One bloke swears by stripping everything, another says it's a waste of life. The truth, like most things in scrap, depends on the numbers, and the numbers depend on the cable.

This is the straight answer: stripping is worth it for thick cable, not worth it for thin cable, and marginal for everything in between. The breakeven point at current UK prices is about 1.5mm² of copper per core, assuming you value your time at £15/hour or more.

Here's the proper breakdown with real numbers.

What the yard actually pays

Two prices matter here. Insulated cable (sheath still on) is graded by estimated copper content, so the yard gives you a lower per-kilo rate because they're paying for plastic they'll have to strip themselves. Bare bright copper wire is the top grade.

At current prices:

• Bright copper wire (stripped): around [INSERT CURRENT PRICE]/tonne, £7–£8 per kg
• Thick insulated cable (high copper ratio, e.g. SWA, mains cable): around [INSERT CURRENT PRICE]/tonne, £4–£6 per kg
• Thin insulated cable (low copper ratio, e.g. 1.0–1.5mm T&E): around [INSERT CURRENT PRICE]/tonne, £2–£3 per kg
• Flex (appliance cable, extension leads): around [INSERT CURRENT PRICE]/tonne, £1.50–£2.50 per kg

The gap between bright and insulated is what you're earning by stripping. On thick cable that gap is meaningful. On thin cable it barely covers the time.

The copper-to-sheath ratio is everything

Here's what most people get wrong: they assume all cable is "mostly copper." It isn't. A length of 1.5mm² twin-and-earth is about 35–45% copper by weight. The rest is PVC insulation, outer sheath, and the bare earth wire (which is copper but thin). On a 2.5mm² or 4mm², the ratio rises to 50–60%. On thick SWA cable or mains feeders, it's 70% or higher.

The more copper in the cable, the more you earn back per minute of stripping.

Breakeven: when is stripping worth it?

Stripping is worth your time when the extra income per hour exceeds what you'd otherwise be doing with that hour. Be honest about what your time is worth. If you're a working sparky charging £45/hour to customers, stripping is rarely worth it during the working day. But if we're talking about evenings in front of the telly while the kids are in bed, £15/hour of extra tax-free income is a fair benchmark.

Here's the real-world maths on three common cable types, assuming manual stripping (knife or hand-cranked stripper, no industrial kit) and the current price gap:

1.5mm² twin-and-earth (domestic lighting/socket cable) - Uninsulated weight: ~120g copper per metre (both cores + earth combined) - Stripping time: 2–3 minutes per metre manually - Extra earned by stripping: roughly £0.35–£0.50 per metre - Effective hourly rate: £7–£12/hour - Verdict: not worth it manually. Sell as insulated.

2.5mm² twin-and-earth (socket cable) - ~200g copper per metre - Stripping time: 2–3 minutes per metre - Extra earned: £0.60–£0.85 per metre - Effective hourly rate: £12–£18/hour - Verdict: marginal. Worth it if you've got evening time to spare, not worth doing on the clock.

4mm² twin-and-earth or 6mm² cooker cable - ~320–480g copper per metre - Stripping time: 3–4 minutes per metre - Extra earned: £1.10–£1.80 per metre - Effective hourly rate: £18–£30/hour - Verdict: yes, strip it. Decent return even at tradesperson's rates.

10mm² or 16mm² mains feeder - 800g–1.3kg copper per metre - Stripping time: 4–6 minutes per metre (tougher sheath) - Extra earned: £2.80–£5.50 per metre - Effective hourly rate: £35–£60/hour - Verdict: always strip. This is the gold.

Armoured cable (SWA) - Varies enormously by size, but 4-core 16mm² SWA has about 2.5kg of copper per metre - Stripping time: longer because of the steel armour layer, 6–10 minutes per metre - Extra earned: £5–£12 per metre - Effective hourly rate: £40–£80/hour - Verdict: always strip. SWA is the single best stripping return in the business.

The "just do it if it's in the van" calculation

A slightly different way to think about it: if you're already going to the yard with a load of scrap anyway, stripping doesn't need to earn you a commercial hourly rate, it just needs to beat doing nothing.

For thick cable, the extra per tonne is so big that even the most inefficient stripping pays. For thin T&E, a five-minute bag of stripping on a Sunday afternoon while watching the football doesn't cost you anything, so it's "free money," even if the hourly rate is low.

The real question is whether you enjoy stripping. Some electricians find it meditative; others hate every second. Both answers are legitimate.

Tools that actually help

If you decide stripping is worth it on the thicker stuff, cheap kit pays for itself fast.

Manual cable stripper, the hand-cranked blade-and-clamp type. About £25–£60. Works well on 6mm² upwards and armoured cable. Cuts stripping time in half versus a knife. Pays for itself in a weekend of stripping.

Pneumatic or electric wire stripper, £200–£600 entry level. Worth it only if you're doing serious volume. Commercial sparks doing industrial strip-outs pay them off in days. Domestic plumbers don't need one.

Blade knife / trusty Stanley, fine for thin cable and for trimming rough ends off stripped thick cable. Always have one.

A vice or clamp, doesn't matter how you're stripping, holding the cable still is half the battle.

What not to buy: "magic" stripping devices that promise to strip any cable in seconds. Most are rubbish and break quickly.

The burn question, don't

Some old-school stripping involves burning the insulation off cable. Don't. It's illegal (waste burning is an offence under environmental regulations), the fumes are genuinely toxic, and yards will refuse to accept burnt copper or grade it down massively because the copper oxidises. The one exception is if you come across already-burnt copper from a house fire, yards will take that because it's not your fault. But you should never be the one striking the match.

The lazy electrician's strategy

If you want to maximise income for minimum effort:

1. Separate cable by thickness as you remove it from jobs. Three bins: thin T&E, medium T&E, thick/armoured/mains.
2. Sell the thin T&E as insulated. Not worth your life stripping it.
3. Strip the thick cable, armoured, and mains feeders whenever you've accumulated a decent amount. An hour a month is enough.
4. Take separate bags to the yard, stripped bright copper and insulated cable get different rates, so they need different weighings.

This approach captures about 80% of the possible income for about 20% of the effort.

For more on making trade scrap pay, see our Tradesperson's Guide to Scrap Income.

Check today's copper prices on our live price page to see what stripping is actually paying right now.