Scrap Metal Recycling and the Environment

Have you ever wondered why it makes sense to recycle scrap metals instead of just sending them to a landfill with other waste?  Besides the fact that your scrap metal can put some money in your pocket, there are sound environmental reasons for recycling ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
Consider these statistics from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: using recycled scrap in place of virgin iron ore can result in energy savings of 75%, and a 90% savings in raw materials consumed.  That’s pretty significant.
Further, using recycled metals in place of virgin ore has a huge impact on pollution and water use:

• Air pollution is reduced by 86%
• Water pollution is reduced by 76%
• Water use is reduced by 40%

And mining wastes are reduced by a staggering 97%.
There’s more: every ton of new steel made from scrap saves about 1-1/4 tons of iron ore, almost 3/4-ton of coal and more than 100 lbs. of limestone.
What about other metals?  Here’s some more data from the US EPA:

• Recycling aluminum: 95% energy savings
• Recycling copper: 85% energy savings
• Recycling lead: 65% energy savings
• Recycling zinc: 60% energy savings

Bringing your unneeded scrap metal in for recycling is not only good for your wallet, it’s the right choice for the environment.  And Donjon Recycling has played a central role in the industry for more than 70 years.