You can’t turn anything you touch into gold, unless your name is King Midas. But surprisingly, you can help save the environment by turning junk into money through scrap metal recycling.
Perhaps you’ve heard about scrap metal recycling many times before. Possibly you’ve read about it, too, but didn’t have the inclination to jump onto the recycling train. But after reading this guide, you may also feel moved up enough to inspect your home for pieces of trash with metals in them.
The 5 Steps of the Scrap Metal Recycling Process
If you’re newer to scrap steel recycling, you may be wondering what goes into the process. It can be broken down into five steps: collection, separation & preparation, melting & purification, solidifying & manufacturing. Read on to learn more about each step.
#1: Collection
The first step in scrap steel recycling is gathering items that contain metals. These can be found nearly anywhere, including construction web sites, industrial facilities, warehouses, landfills, and even at home!
#2: Separation & Preparation
The items are then sorted at a metal recycling facility by type of product and packed for transportation. This is typically done by shredding, shearing, and compacting.
#3: Melting & Purification
After separation, the scrap steel is melted down and purified by steel mills. This is done in purchase to eliminate any impurities from the scrap.
#4: Solidification
The metal is cooled and formed into different shapes for future use.
#5: Manufacturing
The new metal is now ready for purchase. It can be taken to manufacturers, where it’s made into new products.
Large companies with in-house programs and scrap yards often employ 3rd party technical services getting their towering pile of waste in order. They either send their scrap metal to the company or get a technician to their site to conduct PMI tests. These tests use tailored identification methods to sort different types of scrap fast.
On the other hand, business with the right knowledge and expertise gets their own machines (like metal analyzers) to sort their scrap metal.
The Recycling plants will handle the harder parts of the process, including radiation detection, searing, and shredding. But you’ll help your local community recover more reusable materials by gathering scrap metal. The following part will show you what you need to begin.
Tools Of The Trade – Getting Started in Scrap Metal Recycling
1. A Magnet For Identifying And Assessing Metal Value
A magnet is a scrapper’s best friend. You’ll need this tool to distinguish ferrous from nonferrous metals. Here are rules of thumb to keep in mind:
- If the magnet sticks, you have a ferrous metal. Common metals like steel and iron fall under this category. And since they’re easily available, ferrous metals won’t amount to much. Nevertheless, scrap yards still accept them for recycling and will spend you for them.
- If the magnet doesn’t stick, you have nonferrous steel. Copper and aluminum are nonferrous, and they’re worth more than the ferrous variety for a range reasons. They have greater opposition against corrosion, have higher conductivity, and weigh less.
Be sure to bring a handheld magnet before heading out. If you don’t have one available, the small one from the back of a fridge magnet will work.
2. Containers For Sorting
Next, you want to keep a couple of containers within reach for sorting your scrap.
You want to have a container for every type of metal you collect. If you mix them together, the scrap yard will either inform you to separate the metals and come back or pay you based on the the least valuable metal in the bunch.
Here’s an example:
If you have aluminum and copper in a single container, a scrap yard will likely spend you considering the price per lb of aluminum. And you don’t want that as copper has a higher value.
3. Basic Knowledge Of Metals
If you have aluminum and copper in a single container, a scrap yard will likely pay you based on the price per pound of aluminum. And you don’t desire that as copper has a higher value.
Types of Recyclable Metals
Ferrous Metals
- Steel is easy to tell apart from other materials because it will follow a magnet like its life depends on it. It’s also one of the cheapest and heaviest metals around. While metal isn’t valued as much as the nonferrous kind, you won’t run out of steel scrap as it’s discovered in just about anything – from old coat hangers to washing machines.
- Iron is additionally magnetic. Yards utilize magnet-fitted cranes to move iron scrap around. Iron is one of the most recycled metals on the planet partly because it is straightforward to reprocess. Some common household features like bathtubs, boilers, and washers pack a lot of iron in them.
Non-Ferrous Metals
- Copper is one of the most valuable metals that you can recycle, so keep an eye out for it. It has a reddish color when in good condition, but it can have dark brown appearance when worn. You can find copper in computer cables, and power cords, and old extension cords. Old plumbing pipelines, cooking pans, and electromagnets may also contain copper.
- Aluminum may look like steel, but it won’t stick to magnets like the latter. Window frames, car hoods, bicycles, and motorbikes frequently contain aluminum. Oh! Those old soda and beer cans in your bin additionally count.
- Stainless steel contains 70% iron. But it is still considered a nonferrous metal and commands a higher price per pound. The reason? It contains, at least, 8% nickel. Appliances and kitchenware as well as some automotive and aerospace equipment have stainless metal. As you may have expected, it looks like regular steel but is not magnetic.
- Brass is a combination of zinc and copper, often found in keys, valves, doorknobs, and faucets. This heavy steel has a yellowish color (with a touch of red), but often takes a greenish appearance when left outside for a prolonged duration of time.
- Bronze is a product of numerous metals including copper, tin, manganese, zinc, aluminum, and nickel. Identifying it from brass and copper can be tricky, but one thing to keep in mind is that bronze is water and corrosion-resistant.
- Lead is hailed for its industrial properties including corrosion resistance and excellent malleability. But while it’s pliable and soft, lead is heavy, making it a good fit for wheel weights and pipes.
Good To Know: Advanced Scrap Metal Identification Methods
Scrappers can get by with appearances. Understand that other ways for determining metals exist, numerous of which are a staple of an experienced metal worker’s toolbox:
- OES – An optical emissions spectrometer focuses on understanding the composition of a particular piece of metal by using a spectrometer that can determine the level of excitement in the metal’s atoms to determine what kind of metal it is. This is can be completed because different types of metals create different colors, sizes, and appearances for their sparks.
- XRF – X-ray fluorescence excites a metal sample or alloy by using a primary and secondary x-ray source and measures the fluorescent x-ray emitted from the sample, which differs depending on the chemistry or the constituent elements of the materials.
- LIBS – This method is popular in scrap analysis and uses a highly stimulated laser pulse to analyze metals in mere seconds.
- Spark test – This test utilizes a high-speed grinder to generate a stream of spark. The metal worker inspects the color, length, and form of the spark to identify the metal.
- Rockwell test – Using a testing machine with a cone-shaped point, the Rockwell test looks at a material’s hardness to distinguish the kind. The downside, nevertheless, is it only considers only one of metal’s many properties.
If you want to learn more about other techniques and their pros and cons, our post about the most common metal identification methods will give you an introduction.
