Copper content
How much copper is in Romex?
About 65% of the weight is recoverable copper. Here's how much copper each common size holds, and what that means for stripping and what your yard will pay.
Identifying Romex
Also sold or searched as NM-B, non-metallic sheathed cable, 14/2 and 12/2 household wire. White/yellow/orange flat household cable, multiple solid conductors in a jacket. Old cloth-jacketed romex with tinned conductors runs closer to 48%.
How much copper is inside
The copper recovery rate is the share of a cable's total weight that is actual copper once the insulation and jacket are stripped away. For Romex that's about 65%, and typically anywhere from 60% to 73% depending on gauge, age, and condition.
In round numbers: 100 lb of Romex yields roughly 65 lb of bare copper. At an indicative #1 copper price of $4.70/lb (October 2026) that's about $306 of copper — but prices swing by region and by the week, so run it with the number your own yard pays.
Open the Copper Wire Yield calculator, pick "Romex / NM-B (indoor solid)" (or type your own recovery %), and enter your local prices to see the stripped-vs-as-is breakdown for your exact load.
Copper weight by size
From 14 through 10 AWG, NM-B carries a bare ground the same gauge as its conductors, so 12/2 is three 12 AWG copper wires and 12/3 is four.
| Size | Copper in 250 ft coil | Copper in 1000 ft reel | Cable weight per 1000 ft | Copper share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14/2 with ground | 9.3 lb | 37 lb | 61 lb | 61% |
| 14/3 with ground | 12 lb | 49 lb | 81 lb | 60% |
| 12/2 with ground | 15 lb | 59 lb | 87 lb | 68% |
| 12/3 with ground | 20 lb | 79 lb | 115 lb | 69% |
| 10/2 with ground | 23 lb | 91 lb | 126 lb | 72% |
| 10/3 with ground | 31 lb | 122 lb | 168 lb | 73% |
Copper weights are the manufacturer’s published figures; computing them from the AWG cross-section lands within 4% of every one. Cable weights come from the spec sheets listed under Sources; copper share is copper divided by cable weight, so it’s the most you can recover by stripping.
Strip it or sell it as-is?
Verdict for Romex: worth stripping with a machine — marginal by hand. Stripping only pays when the gap between the bare-copper price and the as-is (insulated) price beats the time it takes — and that gap scales with the recovery rate. At 65%, it is a judgement call that depends on your stripping speed. A machine tips it in your favor; a utility knife often does not.
To put a dollar figure on your own time, run it through the Strip or Sell calculator, which adds an hourly rate to the raw copper math.
How it compares to other cable
Every common cable type, with this page's row marked:
| Cable type | Recovery | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| MCM / feeder cable (250 MCM+) | ~88% | 85–94% |
| THHN — heavy gauge (4 AWG to 4/0) | ~84% | 80–90% |
| THHN — standard (8–16 AWG) | ~80% | 75–88% |
| Double-insulated power wire | ~75% | 70–80% |
| Romex / NM-B (indoor solid) ← this page | ~65% | 60–73% |
| Mixed #2 insulated wire | ~60% | 55–69% |
| AC / appliance whip wire | ~55% | 50–60% |
| Extension cords / SJ cord | ~42% | 35–48% |
| Cat5/Cat6 — solid bulk runs | ~42% | 35–58% |
| Cat5/Cat6 patch cords (stranded) | ~22% | 18–28% |
| MC/BX armored cable (copper inside) | ~30% | 25–35% |
| Christmas lights | ~20% | 15–25% |
Sources
- Sahd Metal Recycling: 65%
- Rockaway Recycling: 64–68% ICW
- Southwire SPEC 10028 copper vs total weight: 61% (14/2) to 73% (10/3)
- Southwire SPEC 10028, Romex SIMpull NM-B (copper and total weight per 1000 ft)
Recovery figures are cross-checked against at least two published yard references and kept at the conservative end of each range, so surprises land in your favor. Measuring a stripped sample of your own cable always beats a table.
Romex: quick answers
How much copper is in a 250 ft coil of 12/2 Romex?
About 15 lb. That size carries 59 lb of copper per 1000 ft, and the whole cable weighs about 87 lb per 1000 ft, so roughly 68% of what you're holding is copper. The table above has every common size.
Which size has the most copper per pound?
10/3 with ground, at about 73% copper by weight; 14/3 with ground is the lowest at about 60%. The share depends on how much insulation and jacket each size carries around its copper, so when you're buying or sorting by the pound, the higher-share sizes are worth more per pound of cable.
Is it worth stripping Romex?
Worth stripping with a machine — marginal by hand. The math is the bare-copper premium over the insulated price, times the copper you get back (60–73% of the weight here, depending on size), against the hours it takes. The Strip or Sell calculator runs it with your yard's prices and your hourly rate.
How do yards grade Romex?
#2 insulated as-is; #1 when stripped (solid core). Yards buy insulated wire as-is at a discounted "ICW" rate that already assumes an average recovery; stripping clean copper moves it up to a higher-paying bare-copper grade.
What do the Romex jacket colors mean?
They mark the conductor size: white is 14 AWG (15 A circuits), yellow is 12 AWG (20 A), orange is 10 AWG (30 A), and black is 8 or 6 AWG. For scrap, the color tells you at a glance how much copper a coil holds: yellow and orange carry more copper per foot than white, and a bigger share of their weight is copper.
Price your own wire
Enter your yard's prices and see stripped vs as-is for this exact cable.