Metal Recycling – How & Why

The scrap metal business is growing year after year. Considering the value ofscrap metal, many have started collecting and reselling it to supplement their income. Salvage yards recycle metal using an innovative technique. Before we discuss the technique, it is essential to know why metal recycling is important.

Metal is a natural resource and is available in a limited amount. We can manufacture plastic and glass using natural resources, but we can’t produce more copper, aluminum, iron, and steel.

Metal can be recycled for an infinite period without losing its essence. Some non- ferrous items like aluminum and copper can be used again and again.

Metal is one of the few items that we can regularly recycle and earn money for doing so. Though non-ferrous scrap usually makes nearly 10% of the total scrap, it earns more than half the amount of the total scrap.
Through metal recycling, we are saving natural resources for the future. Since the process of turning raw metal into usable metal is critical and time-consuming, recycling is much easier.

Metal is divided into two categories- ferrous and non-ferrous. Ferrous metals contain iron and have strength. Most ferrous metals are magnetic. A few examples of ferrous metals include steel, cast iron, and wrought iron.
Non-ferrous metals can be any metal that has no iron content such as copper, lead, tin, zinc, aluminum, gold, silver and platinum. Generally, non-ferrous metals are more expensive than ferrous because of desired properties such as lightweight, non-magnetic, higher conductivity and resistance to corrosion. A non-ferrous metal can be used infinitely.

Sorting Manually
When a seller wants to collect, separate, and submit metals, they just need to follow a few simple steps. The seller can easily use a magnet to sort ferrous from non-ferrous metals. The sorted metals can be collected in boxes or bins that make selling to a scrap yard easy.

Sorting Using Advanced Technology
A professional scrap yard makes sure that recycling takes place appropriately. For which scrap metal sorting goes through several sorting processes.

Radiation Detector

A radiation detector, also known as a particle detector, is used to separate radioactive scrap from the rest of the scrap metal. It helps to track ionizing particles like cosmic radiation. Though, the scrap yard makes sure that they are not taking any scrap metals containing
radiation, the radiation detector helps to take extra precaution to avoid radiation. Scrap metal is then thrown to the detector which also separates plastic, paper, and some other non-metal items.

Shearing
With the help of hydraulic machinery, metal is cut into manageable sizes. High pressure is applied to metals for cutting. This is the second step in the process of sorting metal.

Shredding
In this process, metal is cut into tiny pieces with the help of roller and hammer mills.

Ferrous Metal Separation

Right after shredding, separation is necessary to separate ferrous from non-ferrous. It is achieved by using a magnetic drum. It extracts iron and steel from the scrap mixture.

Media Separation

Media Separation is a process of using high-pressure airflow and liquid floating systems to separate ferrous metals from non-ferrous.

Baling
In this process, both separated ferrous and non-ferrous metal are turned into the compact large block to make transportation and handling easy.