What do junk shops buy in the Philippines? A kalakal glossary

A summary, not legal advice. Checked October 7, 2026.

Junkshops in the Philippines buy most scrap that can be recycled: metals such as bakal, yero, lata, tanso, tansong dilaw and aluminum; paper such as karton, dyaryo and white paper; plastics such as PET bottles and hard plastic; glass bottles; and some e-waste and batteries. They should refuse utility and government property, and hazardous items fall under separate rules.

This glossary uses the names sellers and owners actually say at the timbangan. It gives no prices. Prices move by the week and differ by city, so ask your trading company for its current list. Checked October 7, 2026.

A 2024 study of 33 junkshops in Iloilo City, by researchers from Central Philippine University, gives a good picture of what the trade handles. It found six groups of recyclables: paper, plastics, glass, ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, and waste electrical and electronic equipment such as batteries and appliances. Ferrous metals were the largest group by weight, at about 608 metric tons a month for the junkshops surveyed, followed by paper and then plastics.

What metals do junkshops buy?

Metals come in two families. Ferrous metals are iron and steel. Non-ferrous metals are copper, brass and aluminum, and in the Iloilo study they were bought at many times the price per kilo of steel. That gap is why mixing them costs you money.

• Bakal: iron and steel scrap. The Iloilo study lists steel bars, tin cans and galvanized iron sheets under ferrous metals.
• Yero: galvanized iron (GI) roofing sheets. They go with ferrous scrap.
• Lata: cans. Steel food cans are ferrous and go with bakal. Aluminum drink cans are non-ferrous, so keep the two apart before you weigh.
• Tanso: copper, often from electrical wire and appliance wiring. People search for tansong pula (red copper) and for tanso class A, class B and class C. We found no official grading standard behind these labels. Each trading company sets its own, so ask yours what each class means before you buy at that class.
• Tansong dilaw: brass. In the Iloilo price table, brass and alloys sat between copper and aluminum in value.
• Aluminum: drink cans and other aluminum scrap. Ask your buyer whether cans and heavier aluminum pieces are priced separately, and sort to match.

Which kinds of paper do junkshops buy?

RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, names newspaper, corrugated cardboard and office paper among recyclable materials. Junkshops usually split paper into a few grades:

• Karton: corrugated cardboard boxes.
• Dyaryo: newspaper.
• White paper: office and school paper.
• Assorted or mixed paper: magazines, medicine boxes, cartolina and similar paper that is not one of the grades above. A 2012 Philippine Star feature on selling to junk shops listed these as separate items.

Keep paper dry and away from food waste. Wet paper weighs more on your scale, and your trading company knows it. Agree in advance how wet or greasy paper will be treated, so the argument does not happen at delivery.

Which plastics can you sell?

Plastic is sorted by resin type, because recyclers grind and pelletize each type separately. The Iloilo study used the international classification and found these at junkshops:

• PET: clear water and soft drink bottles. The 2012 Philippine Star feature noted that cleaned PET bottles were bought at a better rate than uncleaned ones.
• HDPE, or hard plastic (sibak): detergent bottles, milk jugs and crates, plus old toys and cooking oil or fabric softener containers. HDPE was the most recovered plastic by weight in Iloilo, about 111 metric tons a month.
• LDPE: plastic bags, including sando bags. Recovered in volume in Iloilo, but low in value.
• PP and PS: also bought by some junkshops in the study. Styrofoam is polystyrene.

Mixed plastic that nobody has sorted is worth the least. If you buy it, price it as mixed and sort it in the yard.

Do junkshops buy bote and broken glass?

Yes. The 2012 Philippine Star feature listed round gin bottles, long-neck bottles and broken glass as items junk shops buy. In the Iloilo study, junkshops took clear and broken glass, and counted whole bottles by the piece, sorted into clear, brown and green, while broken glass was bought by the kilo. Together the junkshops surveyed handled about 115,000 bottles a month.

Whole gin bottles have a reuse path. Ginebra San Miguel's BOTEful Philippines program, launched in Aparri in October 2017, collects used bottles that go back into the company's system for reuse or recycling. The Philippine Star reported in June 2026 that it had passed 240,000 bottles nationwide. Keep whole bottles whole and sorted by color.

What about e-waste and old batteries?

Many junkshops buy broken appliances, such as refrigerators, washing machines, electric fans and TVs, and computer parts such as motherboards. The Iloilo study counted batteries and appliances as their own group. The 2012 feature added that sellers earn more when they dismantle an appliance and sell the parts separately.

This is where kalakal meets hazardous waste. DENR Administrative Order 2013-22 classes waste electrical and electronic equipment that contains lead, cadmium, mercury and similar components as hazardous waste, and RA 9003 groups lead-acid batteries with household hazardous special wastes. Our guide "Used batteries and e-waste at a junkshop: DENR rules explained" covers what that means for storage, transport and who you may sell to.

What should a junkshop refuse to buy?

Refuse anything that looks like it came off a utility pole, a street, a public building or a cell site, and anything toxic.

• Electric meters and power transmission materials. RA 7832 makes it unlawful to store or possess any electric power transmission line or material, or a meter, without the owner's consent. Possession by someone outside the power business is prima facie evidence that the item was stolen. The law's definition of transmission materials covers lines of 69 kilovolts and up, including towers, conductors, ground wires, insulators and line hardware.
• Telco cables and batteries. In May 2023, Bacolod City officials and police asked junkshop owners not to accept telco cable wires and to report people selling them, after an arrest over stolen Globe wires (SunStar Bacolod). The next month, police seized cell site batteries at a Bacolod junkshop and the city later closed it.
• Manhole and drainage covers, street signs and railings. Naga City's junk shop ordinance names drainage covers and street signages as public safety materials, and copper, brass, bronze or aluminum used by utilities as public utility materials. Our guide "Junkshop permit requirements and record books in the Philippines" explains how Naga regulates them. In September 2026, a Philippine Star editorial called for a crackdown on buyers of stolen manhole covers and pumping station cables, after a man died falling into an open drain in Angeles City.
• Hazardous household items. Paints, thinners, solvents, cleaning chemicals, insecticides, motor oil and brake fluid are toxic and hazardous waste, not kalakal. A Bria Homes article on what you can and cannot sell at a junk shop lists them, and RA 9003 groups paints, thinners and spray canisters with household hazardous special wastes.

Rules differ by city. When a seller cannot explain where an item came from, do not buy it. Proof of ownership and record books are covered in the permit guide named above.

Why do sorting and cleaning change what you get paid?

RA 9003 defines a recyclable material as waste retrieved from the waste stream and free from contamination that can still be put to beneficial use. Your trading company prices on the same idea: clean, single-material loads are worth more than mixed or dirty ones.

The Iloilo study described how this works at the junkshop. When materials arrive, they are first sorted into recyclables and rejects, and rejects go back to the seller. Only then are the recyclables weighed and the price agreed, depending on the material, the quantity and the seller. Small junkshops in the study sorted and cleaned. Bigger ones also crushed, cut, ground, washed, dried and bagged before selling on.

Contamination costs you twice. You pay for the weight of water, dirt and attachments when you buy, and your trading company deducts the same weight when you sell. A few habits help:

• Separate copper, brass and aluminum before weighing, never after.
• Remove plastic, rubber and iron attachments where you can, or price the piece as mixed.
• Keep steel cans and aluminum cans in different sacks.
• Keep paper dry and bagged by grade.
• Rinse PET bottles if your buyer pays more for clean ones.
• Keep whole bottles whole and sorted by color.
• Give sorting its own space. Quezon City's solid waste rules fine junkshops that have no separate sorting or storage area, or that use the sidewalk as a weighing and sorting area: ₱1,000 for a first offense, ₱3,000 for a second, and ₱5,000 plus possible cancellation of the business permit for a third.

ScrapTrack, the junkshop system from Orvyn Solutions, records each purchase at the scale as a ticket with the supplier, the material, the weight and the price per kilo. Stock is kept in kilos and pesos per material and per yard location, and reports show profit per material, so you can see which grades actually pay you. It does not decide what is legal to buy in your city, and it has no seller ID field yet. A demo is available.

Sources

• Romallosa, Penetrante and Ravena, "Junkshops as Recycling Chain Actors in the Recovery of Waste Resources from a Highly Urbanized City in the Philippines", Applied Environmental Research 46(3), 2024, on ThaiJO (ph01.tci-thaijo.org). Checked October 7, 2026.
• Republic Act No. 9003, Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, on Lawphil (lawphil.net). Checked October 7, 2026.
• Republic Act No. 7832, Anti-Electricity and Electric Transmission Lines/Materials Pilferage Act of 1994, on Lawphil (lawphil.net). Checked October 7, 2026.
• DENR Administrative Order No. 2013-22, Revised Procedures and Standards for the Management of Hazardous Wastes, on the WTO Import Licensing site (importlicensing.wto.org). Checked October 7, 2026.
• City of Naga Ordinance No. 2008-056, junk shop ordinance, on the City of Naga site (naga.gov.ph). Checked October 7, 2026.
• Quezon City Task Force on Solid Waste Management citizen's charter with penalties, on the Quezon City site (quezoncity.gov.ph). Checked October 7, 2026.
• "Cash from trash", Bernadette Sembrano, June 10, 2012, The Philippine Star (philstar.com). Checked October 7, 2026.
• "Palawan towns set record in GSMI's nationwide bottle recycling program", June 7, 2026, The Philippine Star (philstar.com). Checked October 7, 2026.
• "Editorial: Down the drain, literally", September 2, 2026, The Philippine Star (philstar.com). Checked October 7, 2026.
• "Junk shop owners told not to accept stolen wires", Merlinda A. Pedrosa, May 19, 2023, SunStar Bacolod (sunstar.com.ph). Checked October 7, 2026.
• "DLC Junkshop appeals to lift closure order", Merlinda A. Pedrosa, July 22, 2023, SunStar Bacolod (sunstar.com.ph). Checked October 7, 2026.
• "Items You Can and Cannot Sell in the Junk Shop", Bria Homes (bria.com.ph), third-party article. Checked October 7, 2026.