Recycling Metals

With the need for metal growing by the day and the supply being limited, recycling of metals is a major industry, also called the secondary metals industry. Therefore, recycling of scrap metals plays a key role in the supply chain of the metal industry and scrap metal discarded and sent to landfills is being recovered more and more by collectors. Household articles contribute in a big way to the supplies of the metal recycling industry and there are a number of small and large companies involved in recycling as well as in research and development of improved recycling techniques.

Recycling of metals has a number of advantages:

Recycling of metals helps protect the environment as well as save energy. It saves on the water and energy used in the production of new metals and cuts the amount of waste that goes into landfills.
Metal recycling helps to save the fast depleting natural resources such as the iron ore, water and fossil fuels that furnish the energy required for production..
Recycling metals reduces the amount of CO2 released into the air as it requires a fraction of the energy needed for producing virgin metal.
Thus it helps reduce air, water, and land pollution to a very large extent.
With the recycling of metals, there is lesser wastage/usage of water by the metal extraction industry.
The metal recycling industry recycles millions of tons of metal each year and provides job opportunities to hundreds of people, thus contributing to the economic growth of many nations.

Scrap metals are easy to recycle and the biggest advantage is that the metal does not lose its quality or properties during recycling. Almost all metals can be recycled to produce usable metals of high quality. There is hardly any difference in the quality of these metals when compared with primary metals extracted from the ores.

Steel is recycled from scrap metal using techniques such as electric arc furnace and blast furnace process.
Aluminum scraps like cans, foils etc. can be collected and recycled using different processes. Aluminum is among the most recycle friendly metals available and it consumes less amount of energy to recycle. In countries like Brazil, the scraps are collected by various organizations of scavengers and exchanged for utility goods such as school kits, food baskets, and furniture.
Lead is easy to recycle and reuse repeatedly as it does not lose its properties and the recycled product, also called Secondary lead is of the same quality as the metal extracted directly from the ores.
Copper wires from electrical equipment and printed circuit boards of electronic equipment are a source of copper and precious metals like silver or gold respectively.