Ferrous & Non Ferrous Scrap Metals Recycling
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We live in an era when concern for the environment in general is now a global issue resulting in increased consciousness about adapting to more sustainable lifestyles. More and more countries around the world are encouraging people to recycle as many products as possible and metal is one of the most widely recyclable material.
Metal recycling refers to the process of recovering discarded waste metals and processing them in an environmentally friendly manner to produce new metal products. Metals are categorised into two main types, ferrous and non-ferrous, which basically refers to their iron contents. Ferrous metals such as steel and iron contain iron and non-ferrous metals such as aluminium, brass and copper do not. Both types can be and are widely recycled globally. There are several advantages and benefits to recycling as much metals as possible.
Benefits of Recycling Metals
Reduction of waste going to landfills
Metal is not a biodegradable material which is why it is necessary to avoid sending them to landfills which are limited in size and capacity. The more waste that end up in landfills the more pollution that will create to the environment contributing to higher greenhouse emissions.
Reduction of energy consumption
The production of primary metals consumes much more energy than using recycled materials. The production process involves using a lot of resources in mining, refining and processing the raw ore which all consumes a lot of energy. This considerably increases the cost of production and negatively impacts the environment.
Protection of natural resources
The natural metal ores from which primary metals are produced are finite natural resources. Hence uncontrolled and unlimited mining of these resources will gradually reduce their availability leading to increased costs and complexity in extracting them from the ground. However, using recycled materials to produce secondary metals considerably reduces the quantity of ores required to produce the same metals hence reducing the amount of ores that need to be mined resulting in the preservation of natural resources and the environment.
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Unlimited recycling
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Since metal is not biodegradable it is an ideal material to recycle because it can be recycled several times without losing its fundamental characteristics. Some metals such as aluminium may lose some of their characteristics with every recycling cycle resulting in slightly varying quality secondary products. However, the quality of the products is not compromised to such an extent as to make them ineffective.