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Why Recycling Copper Makes Sense

  • 11 May 2023
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Copper has always been around for a long time now. Believe it or not, this element has been long used during early civilisations, where Egyptians would use it to disinfect wounds and surgical tools. The copper alloy is also used to make numerous weapons.

Today, copper alloy is used in a lot of industries. Copper alloys are now processed into pieces of jewellery, medical equipment, wiring, piping, cookware, and many more. Since they are now used at a larger scale around the world, the global copper volume is now estimated at more than 260 billion kilograms. With this capacity, it would just make total sense to recycle copper to avoid the depletion of the said element.

Landfills are Getting Full

The waste products that are piling up in different landfills all over the world are increasing in number. Many natural and even synthetic elements are now processed into products, tools, devices, machines, and other things that just end up on landfills after the end of their service life. By recycling products made up of copper, a valuable percentage of wastes will be eliminated from landfills. Moreover, the need to create more landfills will be gradually eliminated in the future.

Copper is Non-renewable

One thing about copper that you must take seriously is it is non-renewable. Once the copper ore is completely mined and extracted, then the entire copper element in the planet will be completely gone. To date, there are still plenty of copper ore reserves that are still intact. However, it would be great for industries to just recycle copper products so that the copper ore reserves will stay untouched for a long time. After all, the amount of copper that is now circulating in different industries is already enough to meet the current demand.

Resources will be Saved

It is a fact that recycling copper is more energy-efficient than mining new copper. To be precise, the recycling process for copper only takes up around 10 to 15% of the energy required in mining and extracting new copper at its source. Since energy consumption will be reduced in recycling copper, the fuel that will be consumed out of this process will also be saved.

Fuel can get quite expensive if used in huge amounts. As recycling only takes a small amount percentage of energy, you can also expect to save money out of this activity. Besides, it is not economical to mine new copper resources if the value of material out of recycled copper is worth up to 90% of the cost of a product out of new copper.

Toxic Elements are Minimised

The process of extracting and refining new copper is dangerous to the environment. Just like any extracting new elements, huge amounts of harmful wastes are also being emitted into the atmosphere whenever new copper is being processed. When you recycle copper products, the toxins and gases that are being released to the environment are all cut down to a very small amount.

With these benefits, businesses should completely embrace the concept of recycling copper products if they want to maximise their products and savings as well as help the environment. For your copper recycling needs, we at Melbourne Metal Recycling can get the job done. With us, you can bring in any type of scrap and materials that will be recycled for your business.

Talk to us about your metal export needs

We are a trusted scrap metal recycler and exporter in Melbourne, Australia.

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