Reasons for Businesses to Recycle Metal
While some companies generate a lot of scrap metal and others hardly any, most businesses can benefit from recycling the metal objects they don't use. Companies in the construction industry—plumbers, roofers, or builders, for example—may have old pipes and aluminium window frames to get rid of. On the other hand, a cafe may have a few old, unused appliances out the back. Rather than throwing these in a landfill, you should get them recycled. You may wonder what the point of recycling is. Here's why it matters.
Preserves Natural Resources
Recycling metal preserves the natural resources that are mined to produce virgin metals. Steel, for example, uses iron ore and coal, which are prospected from the earth's crust. Another widely used metal, aluminium, involves the mining of bauxite. On the other hand, recycling metal reduces the need for these natural resources.
Consumes Less Energy
Another benefit of recycling is that the process of turning scrap metal into ingots or bars consumes less energy than the production of virgin metal. To create steel, for example, the raw ingredients have to be mined and eventually melted in a furnace, which uses a massive amount of energy. The process of recycling metal involves several stages. The scrap metal is sorted into metal types. The metal is then shredded into uniformly small pieces so that the burning stage uses less energy to melt the metal into bars or ingots.
Enhances Your Company's Image
You can improve your company's image and possibly attract more customers if you adopt environmentally friendly practices. Recycling your scrap metal is one way to do this, as recycling reduces the pollution that harms the atmosphere. You can put your business forward as a socially responsible company, which is something everyone is increasingly demanding.
Recycled Metal Retains Its Quality
If the metal created from scrap was second-rate and wasn't useful, it would be understandable to be reluctant to recycle. However, the reverse is true. Most metals, such as steel and aluminium, can be recycled over and over and still be of the same high quality. Thus, there's no reason not to recycle, and every reason to. This makes it everyone's responsibility to recycle any scrap metal lying around.
Good for the Bottom Line
Metal recycling can also make money for your business. If you're a manufacturing company, it will be cheaper for you to use your scrap metal rather than pay for other people's scrap metal or the production of virgin metal.
For all types of companies, having old metal objects that are lying around the premises recycled will bring in extra cash.
For more information about metal recycling, contact a local business.