Recycling is paramount. It ensures that the wastes are disposed of well, and it doesn’t impact the environment. And hence, it becomes important to dispose of metal in the right manner such that it doesn’t affect the environment adversely. Most of the time, we fail to realize the importance of recycling and leave the material as it is. Such scrap and waste not only add to the environmental waste but also adversely impact the environment. Hence recycling is the best way to reuse the metals and save the environment. Copper is widely used for different purposes rough from household stuff to wire, and even to electrical equipment and much more.
Copper as forming the major part of the solid waste materials:
As per the Environmental Protection Agency, around 34.6% of metal forms the part of all the solid waste that is recycled. In recent years copper recycling has gained momentum and companies are now stringently following the recycling process to ensure that the metals are properly disposed of. In this blog, we are going to discuss copper recycling.
Steps to recycle copper:
1. Collection-The first step is the collection of material that needs to be recycled. You can collect all the scraps like wire, broken circuits, copper cable or any other material that is made of copper. Many scrap parts of the vehicle also have copper. Once you have collected copper material, your next step is to contact a recycling centre who will collect the copper waste. After the copper strips or pieces are collected, they are sent through a chopping line which cuts them into small pieces and then further sorting is done.
2. Sorting of scrap– The copper parts can be sorted in different ways. There are copper stripping machines which are used for striping the copper waste, or there are granulators which are used to convert scrap copper into granules. Both these machines have their own set of advantages. You can sort the copper products based on the type of wire or cable. Based on the type of copper waste, you can choose the type of machine. If you are planning to start a scrap metal recycling unit, then assessing the type of waste and based on it, you must choose the right type of machine. Also, you must ensure that the copper there is completely non-insulated in nature.
3. Shredding and melting– Once you have broken down the copper materials into smaller particles or stripped them into pieces. It needs to be packed for further processing. If you are using a wire stripping machine, then the write needs to be shredded before packing. Rather, values of copper are fed into the melting machine, and the scrap is converted into molten metal. After this, you can pour this melted metal into desired items. The right way of melting and shredding the copper strings give better benefits for commercial application.
4. Cooling and fabrication– The next step of recycling is fabricating the molten metal. But before processing the molten metal to this step, metal slabs must be cooled and hardened, and then they are put into the machine to roll them out into smooth sheets. These sheets can later be used for making new materials.
Concluding thoughts- These were the basic copper recycling steps. If you wish to start a scrap metal recycling unit, then this is the basic steps that you need to follow. Copper recycling is a good way to retain the goodness of original copper and at the same time, contribute to the environment by saving its natural resources. Hence take the onus and contribute to copper recycling. Most of the recyclers are generally interested in copper scrap that has a high rate of purity. Hence quality inspection is must when you choose to conduct copper recycling.
