Kennametal carbide recycling: how the program works, and your other options

You ship your carbide in, in four steps. Kennametal's US carbide recycling page, as archived in February 2026, lists them: fill out its Send Carbide form, ship in a green box container (50 lbs) or a steel drum (500 lbs), the material is received, stored and weighed, and then you receive value.

The same February 2026 capture says the program is offered in the United States, Canada and Germany, and that Kennametal is working to expand it to more regions.

Kennametal's live pages load only with JavaScript, so this guide works from Internet Archive copies of its own US pages, dated by capture. Check the current page before you ship.

Sources: Kennametal US carbide recycling page (Internet Archive capture, February 13, 2026).

Kennametal's own customers. Its online terms, as archived in February 2025, say the online Carbide Recycling Program is meant for customers of Kennametal products and not for scrap metal brokers, dealers or agents.

Those February 2025 terms also cap the online program at 3,000 lbs of recyclable carbide in any one-month period, counting the seller together with its agents and affiliates. A seller who wants to sell more must instead contact a purchasing agent in Kennametal's metallurgical group.

If you trade scrap, or you are an heir clearing a machinist's garage, ask Kennametal whether any route fits you, and see our guide to estate and shop cleanouts.

Sources: Kennametal carbide recycling terms and conditions (Internet Archive capture, February 10, 2025).

As archived in 2025 and 2026, Kennametal's pages list cutting tools, frac seats and road milling bits, and its terms rule out steel, cermets, ceramics, contaminants and hazardous material. Some terms first: cemented carbide is mostly very hard tungsten carbide (WC) bound by a tougher metal such as cobalt (ITIA). USGS calls solid pieces hard scrap, and fine material such as grinding sludge, loose powder, swarf and turnings soft scrap.

Kennametal's US page, as archived in February 2026, lists these types of carbide accepted:

• Inserts, the small cutting tips screwed onto a steel tool holder (ITIA)
• Drills, end mills and reamers (drills and end mills are ground from carbide rod, ITIA)
• Carbide frac seats
• Road milling bits

The same capture says Kennametal also accepts soft tungsten carbide scrap, such as sludge and non-conforming powders. Ask about any form not on the list.

The limits are in the February 2025 terms: recyclable carbide must be free from contaminants, ceramics, cermets and steel, and Kennametal cannot accept hazardous materials. ISO 513 code HT covers cermets: uncoated carbide based mainly on titanium carbide, titanium nitride or both. So a mixed bin of inserts may need sorting.

Brazed tools carry steel too: their carbide tip is bonded to a steel shank with brazing or soldering material (a King Saud University lecture), and ITIA notes the solder has to be removed before processing.

Sources: Kennametal US carbide recycling page (Internet Archive capture, February 13, 2026); Kennametal carbide recycling terms and conditions (Internet Archive capture, February 10, 2025); ITIA, Cemented carbides (newsletter excerpt); USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028, tungsten recycling; ISO 513:2012 sample pages; ITIA newsletter, recycling of tungsten products (May 2018 excerpt); King Saud University lecture, fundamentals of metal cutting.

Under Kennametal's terms as archived in February 2025, the seller pays the freight and Kennametal's weight is final. Each rule below is dated by its capture.

The rejection clause is worth reading closely. As archived in February 2025, Kennametal's terms say it "may reject a shipment or any part of a shipment for any reason or no reason at all," and that no payment is made for material it rejects. Ask what becomes of rejected carbide before you ship.

A deduction is anything taken off the value of your carbide before you are paid; under these terms, freight Kennametal pays for you is one.

Sources: Kennametal US carbide recycling page (Internet Archive capture, February 13, 2026); Kennametal carbide recycling terms and conditions (Internet Archive capture, February 10, 2025).

No per-pound price appears in the Kennametal pages this guide drew on. Its Get Pricing page, as archived in October 2025, asks you to fill in a form for a quote on your hard scrap carbide, selecting your country and entering estimated weights.

So the price is set quote by quote, and under the February 2025 terms a quoted price is honored for 15 days.

Scrap carbide in general has no public price list. USGS noted in 2005 that prices of tungsten-bearing scrap are not published on a routine basis, and that tungsten prices have historically swung widely between scarcity and oversupply. Treat any quote as a dated snapshot and keep it in writing.

Sources: Kennametal Get Pricing page (Internet Archive capture, October 28, 2025); Kennametal carbide recycling terms and conditions (Internet Archive capture, February 10, 2025); USGS Open-File Report 2005-1028, tungsten recycling.

WIDIA has its own US carbide recycling page. As archived in January 2026, it says "our carbide recycling program is currently offered in the United States, Canada and Germany," the same three countries Kennametal's page names.

We did not find terms for WIDIA's program, so do not assume the Kennametal terms above apply. Ask WIDIA which rules cover your carbide before you ship.

Sources: WIDIA US carbide recycling page (Internet Archive capture, January 20, 2026).

You still have options when you are not a Kennametal customer, you have more than 3,000 lbs in a month, or your carbide is mixed with steel, cermets or ceramics (the cap and exclusions are from Kennametal's February 2025 terms).

Zeiler and co-authors (2021) write that large producers offer buy-back programs and that scrap traders are very active in collecting carbide cutting-tool scrap. Other tool makers may run programs too: ask them or your distributor, and read our guide to carbide buyback programs.

• Another maker's buyback program. Each sets its own rules on who may sell, which forms it takes and how it pays.
• A general scrap yard. How a yard grades and weighs carbide varies, so ask first. See scrap yards and carbide buyers.
• A specialist carbide buyer. Its terms are its own, so put the same questions to it.
• Us. We buy scrap carbide in any form and any brand. Sellers anywhere in the US can ship to us and we pay the shipping, we pick up in every city in California, Arizona and Nevada, and we pay cash where state law allows.

Whoever buys, keep carbide out of the steel bin: Zeiler and co-authors note that the tungsten and cobalt in a mostly steel tool can be lost in steel scrap.

Sources: Kennametal carbide recycling terms and conditions (Internet Archive capture, February 10, 2025); Zeiler et al. (2021), Recycling of tungsten (ITIA-hosted open-access copy).

Compare what reaches your bank account, not the headline price per pound. Enter each offer in the offer comparison calculator, and ask every buyer the same six questions:

1. What is the price based on? Kennametal's October 2025 form quotes hard scrap from estimated weights.
2. Who pays the freight? Under Kennametal's February 2025 terms, you do. On carbide shipped to us, we pay the shipping.
3. Whose weight counts? Kennametal's, under those terms, so weigh your carbide before it leaves.
4. How long does the quote stand? Fifteen days in Kennametal's February 2025 terms.
5. How and when is payment made? Net 30 under those terms.
6. What happens to rejected material? Ask whether it is paid for, sent back or kept.

For our offer, send a rough weight, the form your carbide is in and a few photos through our quote page; where to sell carbide lists every other buyer to compare it with.

Sources: Kennametal Get Pricing page (Internet Archive capture, October 28, 2025); Kennametal carbide recycling terms and conditions (Internet Archive capture, February 10, 2025).