Scrapping and recycling have always been around ever since metals were first used by man. It is derived from the idea that states, “That once a metal is used, it can be reused again”.
Metals have their own lifespan, and when one exceeds its said lifespan, the metal will also exceed its usability as well. One can extend a metals lifespan by proper maintenance and by coating them in special substances. However the ugly truth will never go away, that eventually this metals still tarnish and they will become useless someday.
Metals like iron will rust and tarnish, however that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are become useless junk. Rusted metals can be recycled, iron can be reformed, and even rust has its uses.
What exactly is Scrap Metal?
To put it in simpler terms, scrap metal is a combination of metallic material, waste metal, tarnished metal, and any metal product that has exceeded its lifespan. These types of metals are suitable for recycling and they can made useful again. It doesn’t matter if its building supplies, junk metal, vehicle scraps, and surplus parts because they can all be recycled one way or the other.
Scrap metal that originated from residential and commercial use can be smelted into raw materials which can be mixed with brand new metals. This process of recycling metals often have a high market value. Since they can be used, reused, and reused again. These process saves a lot of time, money and effort in the long run.
It is estimated that the recycling industry in the UK is currently worth billions of pounds. It is also estimated that the current value of the recycling market in the US is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and its value may increase twice or three times that amount by 2020.
But despite all of this, a lot of people don’t see the value in recycling and continually dump metals that are no longer “useful” to them.
Advantages of Scrapping Metals
Recycling is getting more and more important over the past few years. This probably stems from the awareness that all of these metals that we have today might be gone in the near future. Mining has its limits, and when all that can be mined has been mined, mankind either has to mine metals outside of earth or to find an efficient way to recycle its existing metals.
Recycling metals have tons of benefit like reducing pollution, reducing wastes from landfills, helping save materials, and so on and so on.
Some major advantages of scrapping metal would be:
Recycling Metals Protects the environment
One of the most obvious benefits recycling in general would be its contribution in protecting the environment. This benefit isn’t just limited to the recycling of metals, but in the process of recycling in general.
The felling and cutting of trees for the production of paper has greatly contributed to deforestations and loss of wildlife. With the recycling of paper, deforestation is can be greatly minimized.
And just like with paper, the recycling of various scrap metals will greatly reduce the emission of greenhouse and would reduce the need to mine more pure metal ores from the earth’s surface.
The process of refining newly mined metal ores often produce more greenhouse gases than the smelting and refining of recycled scrap metals. The recycling of scrap metals also produce less wastes when compared to the process of refining newly mined metals as well.
Greenhouse gas emission are tightly linked with climate change and they often create large levels of air pollution. If left unchecked, the pollution created by greenhouse gases can cause health problems to the residents living near factories and recycling plants.
And even though both recycled metals and newly refined metals produce greenhouse gases, the greenhouse gases produced by recycled metals can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions (to a degree). It is estimated that the recycling of scrap metal can help cut down the emission of greenhouse gasses by at least 300 million tons.
So whether it be recycling plastics, paper, chemicals, and metals, recycling will help preserve the beauty of Mother Nature.
Recycling metals help develop the economy and it creates more jobs
One of the benefits that most people fail to see would is that recycling scrap metals can help create more jobs and help the local economy.
Recycling metals need manpower to the grunt work, it needs experts to handle to oversee the recycling process, and it needs managements as well. Human hands and human minds are needed to make this happen. More job opportunities and it helps improve the local economy in the long run.
Recycling metals helps sustain natural resources
But one of the most advantageous results in recycling scrap metal would be that of sustainability. Resources and raw material are getting scarcer and scarcer each year. If the current trend of mining and process raw ores keep continuing, then the future generations would be in a bind.
By recycling our metals now, we can refine our recycling techniques to such a degree that mining new resources would no longer be needed. This would help improve the sustainably of the future generations. It would help our children and grandchildren live a life with less pollution and less health problems.