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Thinking About Metal Recycling? You Will Now.

Secondary metals are metals discarded through industrial and manufacturing operations or as commercial products that are now obsolete. Recycling these secondary metals allows that we return these waste materials back into the general manufacturing so they can be used for the production of new metal products, thus saving costs and making things more efficient in general. The secondary metals industry is involved in all aspects of this process, from locating scrap, to getting it to a recycle facility and then re-using the material for new metal-based products.

The advent of the industrial revolution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries fueled the consumption of metals significantly. During the 20th century, this trend continued and grew exponentially.  By the 1980’s, the annual production of metals worldwide was a hundred times what it was in the 1880’s. Naturally, this incredible rise in need for metals and the production of metal-based products has led many people to question if there is enough metal reserves in the world to keep up with demand.

Mining for metals cannot continue indefinitely, therefore scrap metal recycling is a natural part of the chain of use. Metal reserves are found, they are made into a usable form, a product is manufactured from it, the product is used, discarded, and then the metal is used again. It just makes ecological sense – it’s using the earth in a smart way. With recycling, there is a huge amount of metals in use that will be recoverable at some future point.

Aluminum recycling is a large portion of the scrap metals industry. In 1993, in a survey of Western countries, 28 percent of the total recycled scrap materials were made up by aluminum. The others that were a significant part of the total included copper, lead, molybdenum, tin, and zinc.

In terms of product applications, metals are rarely used in their pure and absolute form. It’s also tough and expensive to remove alloy elements from metals, so usually the alloyed materials are recycled as alloyed metals only. The various metals that make up the alloyed metal are not taken out to be used in their pure state.

Scrap metal recycling makes economic sense. It also shows our responsibility to the earth and to the efficient use of our precious natural resources. If there’s one positive thing that is happening in this area, it’s that the trend to recycle more continues.

Applied Recovery Systems has been in the business of scrap metal chip processing and briquetting since 1992, all to save companies money and help the process of recycling aluminum, brass, copper, steel, and cast iron. Research and development will continue to be an integral part of the Corporation's objective so as to better serve the chip processing needs of its customers.

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