Intro To Recycling

Posted on: 6 February 2019

Industrial scrap metal can include any kind of metal at all. More importantly, however, the cleanup that follows the piling up of industrial scrap metal typically involves some very specific metal items. If you were to assist in an industrial scrap metal cleanup, the following items are what you would find.

Parts of Machines

Industrial machines break down. When they do, the parts are scrap. They cannot be used for anything ever again, and because they are made of metal, they are recycled. You will see everything from valves to spigots to springs to engines. All of these are on the scrap pile in the recycling bins at industrial plants, and they are definitely scrap when the plant is under demolition.

Leftover Product Parts

If the plant makes cars or assembles any products made of metal, there are always leftover product parts and defective/faulty product parts. All of these extra parts that cannot be used for one reason or another are thrown into the recycling scrap. Industrial metal recycling companies can easily melt down all of these parts to turn them into new, defective-free parts that the manufacturers can use to create and build more complete products. 

Plumbing

Industrial and manufacturing plants have TONS of plumbing in them. Pipes run everywhere, including up the walls, across the ceilings, along the floors, and between vats and machines. When the pipes burst, leak, rust out, or fail, they are yanked and replaced. Metal plumbing is recycled into even more pipes and other necessary construction parts. 

Structural Ferrous Materials

Structural ferrous materials include steel I-beams and rebar. When a plant is demolished and disassembled, all of these ferrous (i.e., iron-based) materials are pulled from the wreckage and sent on to be recycled. It may be a slow and tedious process considering that rebar and I-beams are lodged in lots of concrete, but ultimately, what is regained from recycling these metal building materials saves millions of dollars in production costs of those building materials every year. 

Wire and Cabling

Wire and cabling make up over half of all of the industrial metal recycled. Every time wires and cabling are replaced, pulled from the plant, or pulled from a product, leftover from general and regular use, they are recycled. This includes copper wire, aluminum wire, nickel, and brass. When all of these different wire and cabling metals get to the recycling plant, they are sorted into respective piles before being melted down.