The Green Side of Metal

An interesting article has been published by greenlivingsavings.com giving 6 reasons scrap metal is a good green business.

Extract....

Reusing and recycling items has become ingrained in a society concerned about fulfilling its environmental responsibility. The industry of metal processing and fabrication is no different. In fact, a large percentage of metal products manufactured for industrial and commercial use come from recycled sources. Products like auto parts, building materials and even jewelry generally use recycled metal. This is an already huge industry and in continually on the incline. Knowing and understanding the right avenues to pursue can be beneficially for all young green businesses. 

Here are the six main steps that metal processors use to transform unsightly scrap metal into valuable raw materials.

Nice to see something positive being published about scrap metal for a change :-)

Recycling Secrets

Make Money! Join the many individuals and families who are learning to prosper in the salvage and recycling business starting with little or no cash. Note that little or no cash does NOT mean little or no WORK - this opportunity will take some real honest to gosh hard work - nothing less. Are you ready?

Check out the link below, it has some valuable tips on how to recycle effectively.

 "The only thing that stands between a person and what they
want from life is often merely the will to TRY it and the
faith to BELIEVE that it is possible."- Anthony Robbins

Starting from scrap

Headline Story | equities.com

Great article about a starting business, this is how most scrap businesses, including mine, started.

Extract from the Article:

Oct. 28--YOUNGSTOWN

At a house on Lockwood Boulevard, in a small garage just off the living room, motors are yanked from refrigerators and wires are stripped down to the precious light copper waiting underneath rubber and insulation.

A profit is turned with one small part or by one old rusting appliance at a time.

Dim lights flicker over Michael Kohuth, 20, and Michael Kosach, 19, as they work to build a business from the ground up with their truck, their hands and the word-of-mouth referrals that have thus far given them a running start.

Kohuth and Kosach, both graduates of Boardman High School, have jumped into the country's $100 billion scrap-metal industry, one that employs 137,000 Americans and indirectly supports another 450,000 jobs across the country.

Metal recycling has been around for thousands of years, but with a boom in overseas construction and a dearth of raw materials, prices for scrap metal have surged in recent years, opening a window for guys such as Kohuth and Kosach to make either a simple living or a fortune, depending on how they approach their new profession.

The Boardman natives are known as "peddlers" to industry insiders. They have just one role in an industry with a long line of duties, from the traders on the London Metal Exchange or the New York Mercantile Exchange who set scrap prices by the minute, or the smelters who melt down the junk metal so that manufacturers can turn what were once useless heaps of metal into high-grade raw material with countless applications.

Back in June, Kohuth and Kosach, acting on years of recreational scrapping, decided to start Iron Man Recycling and extend their services, free of charge, to residents and businesses throughout Mahoning County.

The two will pick up almost anything, from an old dryer taking up space in the basement, to a car overrun by tall grass in the back yard. After loading it on their truck, the two will take it to one of several area metal recycling yards for a small or large profit, depending on whatever they haul in a given day.

Aluminium recycling - brief tour

Aluminium has been recycled since the times it was first commercially produced and nowadays recycled aluminium accounts for one-third of global aluminium consumption world-wide. 


Aluminium destined for recycling can be classified into two categories: new and old scrap.

 


New Scrap

New scrap is the surplus material that is thrown away during the manufacturing and fabrication of aluminum alloys.

Most new scrap comes straight from the manufacturing industry. It is usually of known quality and composition and frequently un-coated. It can therefore be melted down with just a bit of preparation. 100% of the arising fabrication scrap is remelted by the aluminum industry.

Old Scrap

Old scrap is aluminum material that is recovered when an aluminum article has been produced, used and finally thrown away at the end of its worthwhile life. Such scrap could be car cylinder heads, used beverage cans, window frames from a wrecked building or old electrical conductors.

Old scrap comes to the recyclers thru a very well-organized network of metal merchants who have the technology to recover aluminum from household appliances, motor vehicles, etc. This is often done by means of heavy equipment such as shredders, usually together with magnetic separators to get rid of iron, and sink-and-float installations to detach the aluminum from other materials.


Processing of Scrap

Both types of scrap are processed before melting to get rid of any contamination that may exist. They are centrifuged and dried to eliminate the oil and water and then magnetically separated from any existing iron. Used beverage cans are processed to take away the interior lacquer coating and the exterior product display printing inks.

More tips on Processing Aluminum can be found at Life is an Adventure