Manufacturing, as we know it, is often linear: Materials are harvested from the ground, made into a product, sold to consumers, and eventually thrown away. Not only does this practice put pressure on natural resources, but it also creates tons of waste.
What if that waste could be recycled back into raw materials?
Welcome to the circular economy. The circular economy takes a “waste not, want not” approach to business and manufacturing. Metal is an excellent candidate for circular production because it can be recycled indefinitely without losing key properties. That busted steel beam from your old warehouse or copper piping from your latest remodel may have gone to a landfill, but it didn’t have to. Metals like these are urban ore just waiting to be recovered and melted down.
Metals Recycling Is Crucial to Our Future
You cannot have a sustainable business model without closing the loop. Metal recycling is how that loop gets closed. Plastic loses its integrity every time it’s recycled. Glass can only be recycled so many times. Metals like aluminum, steel, and copper can be recycled indefinitely.
That’s why it’s so important to keep these recyclables out of the landfill. Not only do scrap metals prevent excess waste from taking up space in a landfill, but they also reduce the environmental impact of every new item manufactured with recycled content.
And don’t even get us started on the energy savings. Recycling metals requires far less energy than mining and milling virgin ore. Let’s take aluminum as an example. Did you know that it takes roughly 95% less energy to create aluminum cans from scrap metal than it does to produce them from raw materials? Every pound of metal you recycle keeps that much less fossil fuel in our atmosphere.
If you’re an industrial operations manager wondering, “Wait… we have scrap metal just sitting in bins on site?” keep reading. There’s money here you’re leaving on the table if you don’t understand the value of scrap metal to the circular economy.
Breaking Down the Circular Economy
Although it’s helpful to think of metal recycling as part of a circular economy, it can be difficult to see how scrap contributes to the big picture. That’s why we’ve put the circular model into five simple steps.
- Design and Manufacture – Products are designed with manufacturing and recycling in mind.
- Use and Reuse – Keeping products maintained and repairing whenever possible prolongs the lifecycle.
- Collection and Sorting – Recycling facilities sort through the scrap they receive to separate types of metal.
- Processing and Melting – Scrap metal is shredded and placed into large industrial furnaces to melt it back into a raw form.
- Manufacturing – That raw material is then used to create new products from scratch.
Fun fact: If you’re not sure whether or not the pile of metal shavings in your truck bed is worth hauling to us, try sticking a magnet to it. If your magnet sticks, it’s ferrous metal (like steel or iron). If your magnet doesn’t stick, chances are it’s something more lucrative like copper, brass, or aluminum.
Earn more money on site or on the job
Whether you’re a foreman on a construction site or an independent contractor, moving to a circular business model can put money back in your pocket.
Foremen: Think of all that scrap metal as clutter. A cluttered construction site is a dangerous construction site. We know you’ve seen those ridiculous photos of plywood sheets stacked to the ceiling. While many loads of scrap metal can’t be stacked quite that high, large bins full of structural steel or bulldozed machinery are an eyesore. Prevent dumping fees by having those loads hauled away as soon as they’ve reached capacity. Keep your job site clear and collect a check for all that metal you were just paying to dump.
Contractors: If you’re in the demolition business or a handyman, seeing scrap metal as cash is music to your ears. Every extra pound of copper or brass you pull out of a client’s house is “found money” that you can count on increasing your profit margins. Treat your scrap like a side hustle, and we’ll treat you like a professional. Before you know it, you could have a full-time business selling scrap metal to Action Metals.
Take our Scrap Value Quiz
How much do you know about scrap metal? Read through our brief introduction to scrap values and take the quiz to find out!
- Which of the following metals can be recycled over and over without losing its quality?
- Steel
- Aluminum
- Copper
- All of the above
- Recycling one ton of steel conserves:
- 500 lbs of iron ore
- 1 ton of iron ore
- 2.5 tons of iron ore
- 1.5 tons of iron ore
Answers: 1. D, 2. C
Get the most money for your scrap metal
Ready to join the circular economy and start making some money? Saving the planet is great and all, but you have to prepare your scrap if you want the mills to pay top dollar.
Sort your metals. The simplest thing you can do to increase your bottom line is source separation. Never put all of your metals into one big bin. Yes, that copper wire is probably worthless to you now, but if it ends up mixed in with a ton of steel, it can contaminate the load when we melt it down. Place separate bins for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal.
Clean it up. Got some copper wire? Take the plastic coating off of it. Got an old gasoline motor? Drain all of the fluids and scrap any large plastic components. The cleaner your load, the more we can pay you.
Compact it. We love big piles of scrap just as much as the next person. But if you’re an industrial site running several production shifts each day, you might not have the luxury of waiting for that one bin to fill up before scheduling a pickup. Use your compactor or shears to maximize your space, and we’ll maximize your return.
Wait for the right moment. Okay, your scrap probably shouldn’t be sitting around for months on end. But if metal prices are low, wait it out a little. Trade magazines like Scrap Review will let you know when it’s the right time to sell.
Sell your scrap metal the right way
We could never blame you for not wanting to waste time sorting your scrap metal. But there’s more to recycling the right way than tossing every broken shard of metal into one big bin.
Contamination is the enemy of recycling. Metals are fantastic because they can be reused indefinitely. However, if your scrap is permanently attached to or contaminated by plastics, then we’ll have to spend more time (and money) processing it. That’s why many new companies are designing with disassembly in mind.
Logistics are also a nightmare. For every ton of steel we recycle, we have to collect it from the facility and transport it to the processing plant. Those trucks can’t run on good intentions. If you’re a facility manager who struggles to simply coordinate pickups with your clients, then you’re likely letting metal pile up until it rusts on site.
Keep good records.
Many of our industrial clients are discovering that it’s actually required to document how they dispose of materials on modern building projects. By working with a scrap metal company that cares about its independent contractors and facility managers, you’ll have a full paper trail that demonstrates your waste was properly processed according to environmental guidelines.
Welcome to the urban mine
We like to think of metals “saved from the landfill” as urban ore. As the prices of natural resources continue to skyrocket, your excess scrap is the most valuable material on the planet. Advances in sorting technology are allowing us to recover more and more metal from electronic waste every year.
X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) technology and sophisticated robotics allow recyclers to extract individual specks of metal from shredded electronics and mixed scrap. The circular economy is only going to get stronger as we improve our ability to recover metals from junk.
Work with the experts | Action Metals
Here at Action Metals, we pride ourselves on making your life easier. Dealing with scrap metal doesn’t have to slow you down. We service both industrial facility managers and independent contractors who need an efficient, hassle-free way to transport their scrap.
We’ve streamlined our routes to maximize your return and minimize our carbon footprint. We use scale tickets to weigh every load we pick up from you so there are never any surprises at checkout.
Got questions? Read our FAQ or give us a call directly. If saving the planet were easy, everyone would do it. Let Action Metals take care of the heavy lifting while you focus on running your business.
FAQ
Q. What counts as ferrous metal? And what counts as nonferrous?
- Ferrous metals contain iron and are magnetic. Nonferrous metals do not contain iron. Nonferrous metals include aluminum, copper, brass, and lead.
Q. Why should I recycle metal?
- Recycling metal reduces greenhouse gas emissions and prevents heavy metals from leaching into the soil and groundwater of our nation’s landfills. In addition to saving energy over primary metal production, metal can be recycled over and over without losing its quality.
Q. Is aluminum recyclable?
- Not only is aluminum recyclable, but it is also infinitely recyclable. Aluminum cans, foil, automobile parts, and construction materials can all be melted down and reused.
