Metal recycling involves the recovery and processing of scrap metal from end-of-life products or structures, as well as from manufacturing scrap, so that it can be introduced as a raw material in the production of new goods. This may involve a number of steps such as identifying, recovering, refining and reclaiming precious or non-precious metals.

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Why refining and recovering metals is important

Recycling in general has become increasingly important in our society. We are accustomed to hearing the three R's of recycling (reduce, reuse, recycle) to include paper, plastics, bottles, cans, and cardboard; however, many people do not know that you can recycle precious and non-precious metal as well.

There is a wide range of reasons why you should refine and recover your metal rather than wasting it. Recycling metal reduces pollution, saves resources, reduces waste going to landfills and prevents the destruction of habitats from mining new ore. Scrap metal is a continuous resource. Because it can be re-melted and reshaped into new products countless times, recycled metal is a resource that will never be depleted. The production of new metal releases a far greater amount of greenhouse gas emissions compared with making products from recycled metal. These emissions may influence climate change and may also cause harmful levels of air pollution in cities, resulting in potential respiratory health problems for the residents.

Recovering precious metals from end-of -life products can also generate a good extra income. During these uncertain economic times investors have fallen back to the more stable commodities market, with precious metal prices (Gold and Silver in particular) rocketing as a result. Gold, silver, platinum and other precious metals can still be mined from natural sources. But mining is very costly and in many cases, it is becoming easier and more cost-effective to recover those metals from devices that already contain them. A ton of recycled cell phones actually contains more gold than a ton of gold ore that comes from most mines.

How to identify metals to refine

You can easily use a magnet to separate ferrous from not ferrous metals. Ferrous metals contain iron which in Helpful site most cases makes it magnetic. If a metal is non-ferrous it doesn't have iron in it, so it won't stick to a magnet. Various other tests can be made to determine the type of metal and if it can be recycled or not. The most common is the appearance test, which consists in studying the physical features of the metal. Sometimes this can be quite difficult as there are metals that look similar to each other. Gold and brass, for instance, are often being confused as they have a very similar colour. After a deeper inspection, however, you should notice that gold is heavier and brass produces a bell like vibrating sound if you try to hit it. Other useful tests are the fracture test, which helps you identify a metal by analysing its broken part, and the spark test, which looks at the spark produced by touching the metal to a grinder.

To identify precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum you can also follow some simple rules.

Common metals that can be recycle and how to identify them

At All Waste Matters we have over 50 years of experience in specialist refining of precious metals in a number of industry sectors. We can help you turn seemingly insignificant scraps into profit for your company. We are both silver refiners and gold refiners and thanks to our extensive expertise we can ensure we will return the maximum value of your material.

Disposing of batteries can be a dangerous thing to do and therefore requires careful disposition and recycling. In order to help save our planet we must recycle them because they contain many harmful chemicals. There are different types of batteries and all of them are recycled differently to reduce the contamination of the land and environment.

Before we dive into the details of the recycling procedure, we must tell you that almost all batteries are recyclable. However, some of them are easier to recycle than other.

Types Of Recyclable Batteries

Common types of recyclable batteries include:

Lead batteries

Lithium-Ion batteries

Nickle-Cadmium

Nickle-Zinc

Nickel metal hydride

All of these batteries are a part of IT waste and are recycled by many IT equipment recycling companies. Now let's discuss the recycling procedures of these various kinds of batteries.

How To Recycle Lead Battery?

Lead acid batteries are 99% recyclable and require five major steps for recycling that are mentioned below:

1- Collection:

This step involves collecting batteries from various landfills and disposal points to be taken to recycling facilities.

2- Crushing:

After collection and assortment, they are then crushed and broken into pieces in a hammer mill.

3- Separation:

These crushed pieces of lead batteries then pass through the VAT. In VAT, the heavy metals and lead are sorted from plastic.

4- Filtering:

In this process, the polypropylene pieces are filtered out, washed and re-used to produce new battery casings.

5- Metallurgical processes:

These processes are carried out for the extraction of precious metals and minerals. Two types of metallurgies are involved in this step. One is hydrometallurgy and the other is pyrometallurgy. Their purpose is to recover lead and other valuable metals. These metallurgical processes consist of calcination, smelting, roasting and refining to get the final product.

How To Recycle Alkaline Batteries?

Just like lead batteries, alkaline batteries are also 99% recyclable. However, recycling them requires a unique mechanical dismantling process. In this process, the parts are separated into three different products i.e.

Steel

Paper and plastic

Zinc and magnesium

After getting separated, these products are sent to the recycling facilities and utilised to manufacture new products.

How To Recycle Lithium Ion Batteries?

99.9% components of the lithium ion, nickel metal hydride or nickel-cadmium batteries can be recycled into useful products.

These batteries are recycled in the following ways:

Plastic is separated from the metal and used to make relevant products.

The residual is then smelted through high-temperature metal reclamation (HTMR) process.

HTMR allows the recovery of iron, manganese, nickel and chromium metal.

Same hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes are used to extract such metals.

The recovered materials are then used to make new products.

How To Recycle Mercury Batteries?

Mercury batteries need to be handled with extreme care. They have highly toxic heavy metals and that's why they need to be recycled in a controlled temperature.

The processes like hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy are conducted in highly controlled material extraction environment.

The extracted mercury is reused to manufacture new mercury batteries.

It is also used in dental amalgams and fluorescent lighting.

Components like plastics are used in other relevant products.

However, keeping their potential dangers in mind, the manufacture of mercury batteries has been reduced or prohibited. They can become a serious threat to human health and the environment. This is the reason that such batteries need proper recycling and disposition. Eco Green IT recycling is an IT recycling UK based company that ensures that no e-waste ends up in landfills. All the IT equipment including batteries are properly recycled and reused.