Recycling Metals and Other Materials

Second Life: Where Will Your Scrap Metal Go?

As the world matures, the importance of taking care of the environment becomes clearer and clearer.  One fantastic way for us to do this is to recycle all our old resources, reducing the need to continue pulling them from the earth - and minimising the amount of waste that's sent to landfill, too.  With household waste, it's very easy to recycle - but since it's a little harder to collect up and recycle your scrap metal, you may be wondering how helpful it really is, and whether it's worth the extra effort of holding on to it until you can schedule a removal.  Well—in answer to that, here are just a couple of the uses for recycled scrap metal to show you exactly how useful it can be.

Aircraft

Since aluminium is a very common metal, and extremely easy to recycle, aircraft manufacturing really benefits from your scrap metals.  After all, approximately 80% of the body of an aeroplane is composed of aluminium, and that's an awful lot of base metal.  Really, this option for recycled metal just goes to show you how transformative recycling can be - turning old, useless scraps into something worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.

Wiring & Cabling

Copper is one of the most valuable scrap metals - both because it's so in demand, and because it's so easy to recycle and reuse.  Even tiny flakes of copper can be melted down and repurposed.  Because copper is such an excellent conductor, it's often used for wires and cabling of various descriptions.  Of course, that's useful to almost every industry.  What's great about copper is that it can be recycled countless times too, so your scraps may go on to be used indefinitely.

Art & Sculpture

Whether you consider this a useful application depends on your viewpoint - but certainly many people do get a lot of enjoyment and appreciation from scrap metal art installations and sculptures, especially when they're placed in the public eye.  This kind of recycling often involves as little reworking as possible so that the original materials are still discernible, so that makes it even better for the environment.

Cleaning Waste Water

One really innovative use of scrap iron is to clean waste water - usually on an industrial level, but the technology could eventually benefit the public too.  The iron is placed in the waste water, where it can attract, collect and neutralise the toxic components in the water.  It may not be traditional recycling - but it is hyper-efficient.

In short, you can really benefit to a whole variety of industries by recycling your scrap metals, and that really helps to protect the environment.  Even if it's a slight inconvenience, then, it's well worth it to recycle your metals - and you may even be able to sell the more expensive ones.  Waste not, want not! For more information, contact companies like Brisbane Scrap Metal Recycling PTY LTD.


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