Public administrations and local authorities in Morocco produce large quantities of out-of-service metal every year: decommissioned service vehicles, dismantled street furniture, equipment from public buildings, material from municipal worksites. This public scrap is not sold like a private company's scrap: it follows a regulated procedure, the public tender, which guarantees transparency in the sale and traceability of the lots. For a municipality, an administration or a public body, organising this sale well means turning a stock that clutters depots into a recovered resource, while respecting public procurement rules. This guide explains where public administrations' scrap comes from, how it is sold by tender, what happens to decommissioned vehicles, and how to prepare a public lot before collection.
The first point to understand: a local authority's scrap does not belong to a department, it belongs to the authority, and its sale must be decided, documented and traced. A decommissioned vehicle, a lot of removed lamp posts or an out-of-service boiler cannot be sold by private agreement as a company would: the sale goes through a tender notice, a special conditions document, a site visit and a bid opening. This procedure protects the authority and gives the buyer a clear framework: lots defined by metal, estimated quantities, collection point, deadlines. Our article on scrap metal purchase step by step describes the process from the collector's side; this one describes the public side of the sale.
Where does public administrations' scrap come from?
The first and most visible source is vehicles: service cars, vans, refuse trucks, road and public works machinery decommissioned after years of use. Then comes street furniture: lamp posts and lighting masts removed during renovations, railings and guardrails, benches and bollards, road signs, bus shelters. Public buildings also produce their share: boilers and air-conditioning units replaced, lifts removed during renovation — our article on scrap metal from elevators and lifting equipment details this equipment — pipework, electrical cables and control cabinets.
Large public facilities generate one-off but massive lots: when a stadium is renovated, the dismantled metal structures, stands and roofs represent hundreds of tonnes of scrap, as shown by the sale organised in Tangier for the renovation of the Grand Stade, with around 1,200 tonnes of metal sold by tender under the supervision of the State Property Directorate and more than twenty bidding companies. Municipal worksites, road depots and technical services workshops produce continuously: sheet offcuts, profiles, cables, used spare parts. Finally, public bodies — ports, offices, agencies — regularly sell decommissioned machinery and scrap lots by tender, as Marsa Maroc does for its machinery and scrap lots at the port of Casablanca.
How does an administration sell its scrap? The tender
Scrap sold by an administration or a local authority is sold by tender, published in the press and on tender portals. The notice states the purpose of the sale — for example the sale of scrap from the dismantling of installations — the split into lots by metal, the conditions for visiting the site and the bid opening date. Lots are usually separated by type: a lot of iron waste sold by weight, a lot of copper, a lot of aluminium, and a lot of selected parts sold as a lump sum, such as stainless steel fasteners or cast iron items.
The special conditions document (CPS) sets the rules: who may bid, which documents to provide, what provisional deposit to pay, how the stock visit works. To be admitted, the bidder must generally prove registration in the commercial register mentioning the activity of scrap dealer or treatment of ferrous and non-ferrous waste — an eligibility condition the administration checks before even opening the bids. The site visit is essential: it lets the bidder assess the nature and real condition of the stock before making an offer, instead of buying blind. After the bid opening, the contract is awarded to the best bidder, and collection must respect the deadlines and conditions set by the CPS.
Decommissioned administrative vehicles: scrap apart
A decommissioned administrative vehicle is not just a pile of metal: it is a complete vehicle, with an engine, a gearbox, cables, batteries and fluids. Before any cutting, it must be depolluted: draining oils and coolants, removing batteries — which go to their own stream, as explained in our article on recycling used batteries in Morocco — removing tyres and air-conditioning fluids. This depollution is the first step of any vehicle dismantling, public or private.
Then comes dismantling: parts still in good condition — alternators, starters, bodywork parts, upholstery — can be recovered for reuse before the shell goes to scrap. For public transport vehicles, the same principle applies on a larger scale: our article on scrap metal from road transport and trucks describes this dismantling. The sale of a public vehicle is finally accompanied by a destruction certificate, which closes the vehicle's administrative file and guarantees it will not return to the road. This document is what distinguishes the decommissioning of a public vehicle from a simple scrap sale.
Street furniture and out-of-service public equipment
Street furniture is discreet but constant scrap: every road renovation, every redevelopment of a public square, every replacement of public lighting frees steel masts, cast iron railings, bollards and structures. These parts are generally steel or cast iron, sometimes aluminium for modern masts, and they sort easily by metal. Municipal technical services depots also accumulate stocks of spare parts, cables and offcuts that end up being sold in lots.
Equipment from public buildings — schools, hospitals, administrations — follows the same logic: boilers, refrigeration units, electrical cabinets, copper pipework, cables. Our article on scrap metal from healthcare and hospitals covers hospital equipment, and the one on stadiums and sports infrastructure covers sports venue equipment. The rule is the same everywhere: sort by metal at source, separate copper and stainless steel from steel, remove hazardous items before collection. A well-sorted public lot sells better and is collected faster — as true for a municipality as for a factory.
Preparing a public lot: inventory, sorting and documents
Preparing a public scrap lot starts with the inventory: type of metals, approximate volumes, condition of the parts, photos of the stock, address and access to the depot. This inventory is used to draft the tender notice and the CPS, and it lets bidders prepare their visit. Sorting by metal comes next: one pile for steel, one for aluminium, one for copper, one for stainless steel — each family labelled, as in the on-site sorting described in our article on sorting metals in the company.
On the documents side, the authority must be able to justify the sale: a decision or resolution decommissioning the equipment, a detailed inventory of the lot, a weighing slip at collection, and a destruction certificate for vehicles. Traceability is a requirement of the public procedure: every lot sold must be traceable from inventory to weighing, then to the foundry. That is also the role of the collector who wins the tender: organise collection within the deadlines, weigh each load, document the flows and hand the supporting documents to the administration. For the general legal framework, read our article on the legal obligations for metal waste in Morocco.
What happens to public scrap after the sale?
After the sale, public scrap follows the same stream as any scrap: it goes to a sorting centre, where it is identified, separated by metal, cut and compacted, then to the foundry, where it is melted into new raw material. Sorted steel becomes profiles or sheets, melted copper becomes ingots or cables, sorted aluminium becomes alloy ingots. Our article on scrap metal from sorting centres and recycling facilities describes this passage through sorting.
For the authority, selling its scrap is both revenue and a circular economy gesture: recycled metal replaces virgin ore in production, and the stock that cluttered the depots frees space for the technical services. For this chain to work, every link must be traceable: that is the collector's role, inventorying, sorting, weighing and documenting every lot. MOUMETAL operates throughout Morocco for administrations and local authorities with this process: first contact by phone or WhatsApp, site visit to inventory the lots, support in preparing the tender, sorting with the department's teams, weighing and documenting the flows, collection by truck at agreed times. To organise an inventory or answer a tender, contact us: +212 660 690 806 — contact@moumetal.com. And to place the sale in the wider recycling picture, read our page scrap metal collection and removal and our article on metal sorting.
FAQ — Scrap metal from public administrations and local authorities
How does an administration sell its scrap in Morocco? By tender: publication of a notice, special conditions document, lots split by metal, site visit by bidders, submission of bids with a provisional deposit, then bid opening and award to the best bidder. The procedure guarantees transparency in the sale and traceability of the lots.
Who can buy scrap from a local authority? Companies whose commercial register entry mentions the activity of scrap dealer or treatment of ferrous and non-ferrous waste, and which provide the administrative file required by the special conditions document: commercial register, tax certificate, provisional deposit and a compliant bid.
What happens to a decommissioned administrative vehicle? It is depolluted — draining oils and fluids, removing batteries and tyres — then dismantled: parts still in good condition are recovered for reuse, and the shell goes to scrap towards sorting and then the foundry. The sale is accompanied by a destruction certificate, which closes the vehicle's administrative file.
How do I take part in a scrap sale tender? Read the notice published in the press or on tender portals, collect the special conditions document, visit the stock on site to assess its nature and condition, prepare the administrative file and the bid, pay the provisional deposit, then submit the bid before the bid opening deadline.
Which documents are needed to sell a public body's scrap? The decision or resolution decommissioning the equipment, a detailed inventory of the lot, a weighing slip at collection and, for vehicles, the destruction certificate. These documents ensure traceability of the sale, from inventory to foundry.
Have your administration's scrap recovered by MOUMETAL
Decommissioned vehicles, street furniture, public building equipment or municipal worksite lots: MOUMETAL buys and collects scrap from public administrations and local authorities in Morocco, with on-site inventory, sorting by metal and full traceability. To learn more, read our page scrap metal purchase and our article on construction site scrap. Contact us: +212 660 690 806 — contact@moumetal.com.