Is metal a residual waste?

Copper scrap examples

As you may know if you have been surfing our website, one of our main areas of work is the purchase and sale of machinery for scrap metal recycling. And that our main motive is that we believe in taking care of the environment through a better management of solid metal waste.

As we mentioned in the previous section, in addition to waste from iron, waste from other metals is also considered scrap. There are two main groups into which it can be classified:

The high regenerative properties of metals during the recycling process represent a great opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of their recovery for the care of the environment through the following three consequences/advantages of scrap metal recycling:

Scrap metal recycling involves the recovery of raw materials that would otherwise end up in waste landfills as unusable materials. Through the sorting, treatment and recycling process carried out during waste management, metal ready for reuse in new production processes is obtained again, reducing the amount of waste we accumulate.

Metal is a hazardous waste

Recycling metals helps to avoid worsening the current pollution situation by reducing water and air pollution and reducing the energy required. It also saves millions of tons of scrap metal.

These materials come from mining and extraction, but they are non-renewable resources. For this reason, the recycling of metals is essential in order to take advantage of them and make sustainable use of them. In addition, metal extraction processes contribute to leaving a significant environmental footprint, which can be reduced thanks to the recycling process.

Once separated, the next step is to compact the metals for easier handling. After that, the shredding process begins, with the aim of reducing the volume of the metal waste to save energy in the smelting process.

The sheets or pieces of metal resulting from the shredding go through a furnace to be melted. This is the process that makes the difference with the manufacture of completely new metals, since recycling uses much less heat and water than the process of producing metals from scratch.

Metal waste examples

Metals, both ferrous and non-ferrous, are part of many products we consume on a daily basis, from cans and containers for appliances to automobiles. In general, the metals most commonly recycled are iron, steel and aluminum.

The most common being aluminum cans (containing soda), which are the most popular source of aluminum scrap. While vehicles tend to produce a large amount of iron and steel.

Clogged drains represent an imminent risk of flooding during the rainy season, the accumulation of waste carried by the water causes the blockage of the drains, which is one of the main reasons for puddles every time there is a rainfall. In addition to remembering not to throw garbage in the streets.

Before the rainy season in Mexico, it is important to prevent flooding. Therefore, cleaning of drainage networks and clearing of sewers and canals in the city so that they are free of garbage, dirt and debris must be carried out so that rainwater can flow properly.

Ferrous metal wastes examples

4 Machining stageThis may include operations such as: Cutting, Turning, Milling, Milling, Drilling, Smoothing, etc., and normally fluids are used for cooling and lubrication of the parts due to the high temperatures that can be reached in these operations.Waste that may be produced:Some waste (R-2) has already been dealt with above. In the case of (R-7), effective draining or decanting is essential and, if necessary, centrifuging or filtering, in order to eliminate as much as possible of the oils or lubricants with which they are impregnated, so that they can be considered metallic waste. If not, they should be considered as hazardous waste because oils and drilling oils are considered as such.their coding can be:* Indicates Hazardous Waste (HW).as mentioned above, the management of HW should be carried out through an approved manager.the proposals for improvement and minimization that are pointed out are:5 Finishing stage (polishing, brightening, degreasing, etc., and final cleaning-washing of the parts, etc., etc.). The wastes produced in this stage are the same or similar to those described in the previous stages 2 and 3, since the processes are the same but with the finished part, so the codifications and proposals for improvement and minimization will not be repeated here.