The Metal Recycling Process
8/24/2011Collection
The most commonly recycled metals are steel and aluminum, although any type of metal can be recycled. The benefit of scrap metal recycling is that it has an indefinite reuse life; metal can be recycled over and over without losing strength or losing its material compound. The recycling process starts with scrap metal. Scrap metals are collected from disposed vehicles, consumers items (such as cans), and industrial products. The metals are sent to sorting agents who separate the metals by type and composition, to keep like metals together. The sorting agents then send the scrap metals to a metal recycling plant, which may be located on-site or at a different location.
Melting
The metal recycling plant performs a quality inspection overview on the scrap metal it receives; to make sure the sorting agent has correctly separated the types of metals. After the inspection, the metal is heated by a smelter, a device capable of melting large objects at very high temperatures. The different types of metals go through different smelters, because each metal has a different melting point (for example, aluminum melts at 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, steel melts at 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit). Once the metals are fully molten, they are molded into small bars called ingots and are allowed to cool.
Uses
The ingots are distributed to manufacturers and re-melted to become made into different products. Some popular uses for recycled metals are aluminum cans (for soft drinks), office products (filing cabinets, storage racks), and household products (canned foods, metal furnishing). In recent years, steel from old automobiles has even been used in conjunction with new steel to manufacture new automobiles.
