SCRAP METAL RECYCLING

Scrap is used to describe recyclable and other materials left over from every manner of product consumption, such as parts of vehicle, building supplies, and surplus materials. It is always confused with waste, but the fact is that scrap has significant monetary value. Overall, the scrap industry processes more than 145,000,000 short tons.

How Scrap is Processed

The sources of scrap metal can be from businesses and homes as well.  To properly dispose of it, a ‘’scraper’’ will advertise his services to conveniently remove scrap metal for people who don’t need it, or need to get rid of it.

Scrap is often brought to a wrecking yard, it also known as scrap yard, Jung yard or breakers yard where it is processed for later melting into products. Depending on the location of a wrecking yard, it may allow to browse their lot and purchase items before they are sent to the smelters. Although many scrap yard that deal in large quantities of scrap usually do not, often selling the entire units such as engine or machinery by weight with no regard to their functional status. Customers are typically required to supply all of their own tools and labour to extract parts, and some scrap yards may first require waiving liability for personal injury before entering. Many scrap yards also sell bulk metals by weight, often at prices substantially below the retail purchasing costs of similar pieces.

Scrap yards typically sell everything by weight, rather than by item. To the scrap yard, the primary value of the scrap is what the smelter will give them for it, rather than the value of whatever shape the metal may be. An auto wrecker in the other hand, would price exactly the same scrape based on what it weighs. Typically, if a wrecker cannot sell something above the value of the metal in it, they would then take it to the scrap yard and sell it by weight. Equipments containing parts of various metals can often be purchased at a prize below that of either of the metals, due to saving the scrap yard the labour of separating the metals before shipping them to be recycled.

Importance of recycling scrap metals

Recycling scrap metals can be beneficial to the environment .Using recycled scrap metal in place of virgin iron ore can yield,

§  75% savings in energy

§  90% savings in raw materials used

§  86% reduction in air pollution

§  40% reduction in water use

§  76% reduction in water pollution

§  79% reduction in mining wastes

Every tonne of new steel made from scrap steel saves:

§  1,115kg of iron ore

§  625kg of coal

§  53kg of limestone

Energy saving from other metals includes:

§  Aluminium savings of 95% energy

§  Copper savings of 85% energy

§  Lead savings of 65% energy

§  Zinc savings of 60% energy.