Range brass - scrap metal?

[Mulehahn]

I went to visit a friend and we popped into his range for a fun day. It's a small town range, never busy kinda place. Anyways, we were shooting away and when it came time to clean up the brass (a lot of .22 was shot) I was told to just toss it away.

I was kinda taken back. At my range I pick up my rifle brass for reloading and just toss my pistol brass into the collection bin. I never enquired as to what happens to it. I just figured it was sold for scrap. Is that not what happens to it? Do you have to deprime it? Seems to me that, while you won't make a lot, a few months of range brass would certainly pay for the gas to take it in, even at today's prices, and be worth it.