SCRAPE METAL RECYCLING BIG AND EXPORTED TO ASIA

http://www.recyclemetals.org/about_metal_recycling


Metals recycling is a £5 billion UK industry, processing ferrous and non ferrous metal scrap into vital secondary raw material for the smelting of new metals. The industry employs over 8,000 people and makes a net contribution to UK balance of trade.
Worldwide, over 400 million tonnes of metal is recycled each year.
Virtually all metals can be recycled into high quality new metal. The process varies for different metals, but generally produces metals of equivalent quality. Thus, for example:
•Steelmaking using the electric arc furnace process uses scrap metal as the major raw material. This method is typically used for high quality tool steels and stainless steel. Smaller quantities of scrap can also be used in basic oxygen (blast furnace) steelmaking.
•Copper scrap is used by both primary and secondary producers, where processing methods include blast furnace, reverberatory furnace or electric arc furnace. In the latter, around 75-80 per cent raw material is scrap copper.
•Aluminium production uses a single production method - the Hall-Héroult Process. But virgin raw materials require temperatures of around 900 C, whilst scrap aluminium melts at around 660 C.
Metals recycling protects the environment and saves energy. Using secondary raw materials means less use of natural resources which would otherwise be needed to make new metal compounds – such as iron ore in steelmaking; nickel in stainless steel; or alumina and bauxite in aluminium smelting. There are also considerable savings in energy, and reduced CO2 emissions, in production methods using recycled materials:

EU figures indicate that using recycled raw materials, including metals, cuts CO2 emissions by some 200 million tonnes CO2 emission reduction every year.
There are also other environmental benefits, for example, using recycled steel to make new steel enables reductions such as:
•86% in air pollution
•40% in water use
•76% in water pollution
Metals recycling supplies a major worldwide industry. Manufacturing of metals continues to be one of the largest UK manufacturing sectors, employing more people, and contributing more value to the UK economy, than motor and aerospace combined. Growth in China, and to a lesser extent India, means that export markets are growing.
Thus recycled metals have significant economic value – and so scrap metal is rarely discarded or sent to landfill.
In 2005, 13 million tonnes of metal was recycled in the UK. Around 40% of this was used in the UK, and the remaining 60% exported worldwide: the UK produces considerably more scrap than is required for domestic markets.
•ferrous scrap: 4.6 million tonnes of iron and steel and stainless steel scrap was supplied to steelworks in the UK, and 0.9 million tonnes to UK foundries; 6.1 million tonnes was exported. Major markets were Europe, particularly Spain, and Asia, particularly India. The worldwide market for ferrous scrap is predicted to continue its steady growth, which has averaged around 5% per annum over the past 12 years.
•non-ferrous metals: over one million tonnes was processed. Approximately 45% of this was aluminium, 31% copper, and significant quantities of nickel, brass, zinc and lead. Non ferrous metals are traded on the London Metal Exchange, and therefore subject to volatility in commodity investments. UK exports topped 800,000 tonnes in 2005, a 20% increase on the previous year. Europe, China and India are the main destinations.
The UK is one of the five largest metal scrap exporting countries in the world.
Export destinations for steel, aluminium and copper.
Metals recycling contributes more than any other sector to UK targets for the prevention of waste through recovery of ‘end of life’ products:
•Packaging: some 2 billion aluminium and steel cans are recycled every year.
•Vehicles: over 75% of a car is metal – nearly 90% of the target. Around half of the material processed by metal recycling shredders comes from vehicles
•WEEE: the industry already recycles most discarded household appliances. Electronic and telecommunications goods are a significant consumer of non ferrous metals.
•Batteries: The EU Directive comes into effect in 2008, but the metals recycling industry is already recycling most lead acid vehicle and industrial batteries.
…and because so much of these products is metal, metal recyclers are also leading the way in research and development to separate and recycle other materials, such as glass and mixed plastics.
Metals recycling is a ‘pyramid’ industry which includes many small, family owned companies, as well as large, international businesses. Operators carry out a range of functions, often including several of the following activities, with smaller operators supplying partially or fully processed metals to larger operators and traders:
•Collection, weighing, sorting and distribution of metals: dealing with a wide range of suppliers, including engineering industries; small traders, such as plumbers or vehicle dismantlers; local authority collection sites; and householders disposing of domestic appliances.
•Shearing – reducing the size of large pieces of metal by cutting
•Baling/compacting – to improve ease of handling and transportation
•Shredding – reducing feedstock to fist-sized lumps; and separating metals from other materials using magnets and air classification methods. A large shredder can process a car in less than ten seconds.
•Media separation – further separation of any remaining non ferrous metals using liquid density and hand or mechanical sorting methods
•International metals trading – moving metals around the world

http://www.wrap.org.uk/

http://www.doitpoms.ac.uk/tlplib/recycling-metals/eddy_current.php

What metals can be recycled?  previous | next 
In short, almost all metals can. For example in the U.S., of the 132 million tonnes of metal ‘apparent’ supply, recycling contributed 67 million tonnes.  That’s equivalent to about 50.8% [1]. In the UK, iron and steel make up the majority of the recycled metal in use. It is supplied mainly from industry and increasingly from municipal and household waste. Common examples include aluminium and tin/steel cans, and cars.

 UK metals recycling statistics [2].
However, the process of metal recycling is not as simple as ‘melt it’, materials science knowledge is needed. There are two viewpoints to the recycling process, the recycling of individual metals, and the recycling of whole products.

Is recycling economically feasible?
Recycling is a great idea, in theory.  The sad fact is that unless there are clear economic gains from recycling metal, large-scale initiatives are unlikely to become popular.  To be economically viable, the energy saved by recycling needs to be significantly larger than the energy needed to produce the metals from ores.
There are statistics quoted for the amount of energy saved by recycling, for example these from the British Metals Recycling Association [2]:
Metal Energy Saving (%) 
Steel 62 - 74
Copper 87
Zinc 63
Lead 60
But, where do these numbers come from?
It is the job of the materials scientist to come up with values like the ones above, requiring calculation as precisely as possible using fundamental background knowledge.
http://www.doitpoms.ac.uk/tlplib/recycling-metals/printall.php

http://www.crtprocessing.com/
http://www.dmoz.org/Business/Environment/Waste_Management/Recycling/Electronics/
http://www.scrapcoalition.com/crisis.htm


The Crisis
June 12, 2008
New “American Scrap Coalition”
Will Address Global Trade Barriers
Coalition Notes Record Level of U.S. Exports and Prices, Calls on USTR and Congress for Immediate Action
WASHINGTON, DC—As steel scrap prices reach record high levels of more than $600 per ton and with U.S. scrap exports steadily rising, a group of steel scrap using industries has formed the American Scrap Coalition and today urged immediate governmental action to remove global barriers to trade.
The U.S. steel scrap processing and consuming industries are facing a steel scrap export crisis. Steel scrap exports from the United States have tripled since 2000, rising from 6.3 million tons in 2000 to more than 18 million tons in 2007. U.S. scrap exports have surged to a variety of countries, including Turkey, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Egypt, Greece, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Indonesia, Japan, Italy, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Colombia. China and Korea also remain among the top five destinations of scrap exports.
Meanwhile, U.S. scrap imports in 2007 decreased 23 percent from 2006, from 4.8 million tons to 3.7 million tons, as numerous countries have erected trade barriers to restrict steel scrap trade and maintain their scrap for domestic use.
“Steel scrap trade does not occur on a level playing field,” said Alan Price, president of the new American Scrap Coalition and a partner at Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, which serves as counsel to the Coalition. “More than 20 countries, including Brazil, Russia, India and China, have enacted a series of barriers to scrap trade in order to protect their domestic steel industries.” These barriers on exports are distorting trade in steel scrap, Price said, thereby raising scrap prices on the U.S. market. U.S. steel scrap prices have surged to unprecedented levels, from less than $100 per ton in 2002 to more than $600 per ton today. This has led to serious and growing concerns about domestic scrap availability.
In response, industry associations representing more than 1500 steel scrap consuming companies have announced the formation of the American Scrap Coalition (http://www.scrapcoalition.com/), and are calling on Congress, the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department to immediately address scrap trade barriers.
“Many of our major trading partners maintain restrictions on their scrap exports, through quotas and other export restrictions,” said Thomas Danjczek, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association. “Our government should work immediately to remove these barriers, using any and all means available.”
The American Scrap Coalition has identified several priority issues:
Identify and remove barriers to trade in steel scrap, which hinder U.S. companies and global competition;
The U.S. carbon steel industry recycled approximately 75 million tons of ferrous scrap last year, with approximately 80 percent of that scrap consumed in Electric Arc Furnaces. Recycling scrap metal is the most efficient way to make steel, and therefore results in the lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions. The American Scrap Coalition will support and promote policies to encourage the recycling, recovery and use of recycled scrap material in production of new steel products.
Consider actions by Congress, the Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to remove trade barriers.
Sharp price increases and the potential for scrap shortages are having significant effects on important manufacturing sectors of the U.S. economy. The rising cost and decreasing availability of steel scrap impacts all manufacturers, buyers and consumers of steel scrap. If actions are not taken to open markets abroad, the United States needs to consider taking more aggressive actions.
Key U.S. industries, from foundries to steel producers to construction to automotive manufacturing to appliances, face impacts from sharply increased steel scrap exports and pricing levels. Companies of all sizes, from national manufacturers to small family-owned steel parts makers, are impacted. This crisis has the potential to affect tens of thousands of jobs in manufacturing and consuming industries.
The American Scrap Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit corporation, is a successor to the Emergency Steel Scrap Coalition, which formed in 2004 to address scrap export and price issues and to advocate for controls on exports of domestic steel scrap. Founding members of the American Scrap Coalition include the Steel Manufacturers Association, the American Foundry Society, and the National Precast Concrete Association. In all, more than 1500 companies are members of these associations.
Companies and industries wishing to join the American Scrap Coalition can register at http://www.scrapcoalition.com/, or contact Alan Price or Tim Brightbill of Wiley Rein LLP, which serves as counsel to the Coalition. The website contains additional information on scrap trade barriers, import and export levels and prices.