Is Scrap Metal Recycling Bad For The Environment?

Recycling has taken on a new life in the past decade, from designated waste bins to a boom in products and packaging made from recycled materials. Scrap metal recycling targets a vital area, repurposing valuable metals while keeping them out of landfills.

If you don’t know much about the scrap metal industry, you may have concerns over how eco-friendly repurposing metal is. The truth is, the risks of not recycling are far greater than the energy needed to reuse metal. Read on to learn about key scrap metal recycling benefits, and how you can benefit financially while aiding the environment.

What happens to metal that’s not recycled?

Any metal scraps that are not recycled are typically sent to a dump, where overcrowding and pollution have a real impact on our environment. Dumped electronics and waste metals leak toxins like lead, mercury, and arsenic into the soil and water supply, harming plants, animals, and humans alike.

Without scrap metal recycling new raw materials are mined from the earth to feed the never ending demand for consumer products. The depletion of natural resources needs to be prevented, to safeguard our future and minimise the vast environmental impact mining has on our earth.

Key scrap metal recycling benefits

There are many advantages to recycling metal, thanks to its inherent capabilities of being repurposed time and time again without any impact on its strength, durability, or longevity.

Metal recycling takes unwanted materials and gives them a new life, thanks to safe, thorough practices by industry experts that removes impurities to create strong new products. Why let unwanted materials take up space in your yard when both your finances and the environment benefit from recycling them?

Minimises the need for raw materials

High quality results from reused steel, aluminium, ore, and copper enable us to reuse them with zero risk. Given the vast demand for metal products – from food tins to vehicle parts – this is vitally important for both our economy and environment, as it reduces the amount of raw materials benign mined to feed the world’s requirements.

Conserving our natural resources means reducing the vast amount of greenhouse gases emitted during the extensive mining process – from excavation to transport – which in turn reduces air pollution, the destruction of ecosystems, and problematic toxin poisoning of our precious land.

Reduces environmental impact

Among the leading scrap metal recycling benefits is keeping harmful toxins out of our soil, preventing public health risks while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling saves a considerable amount of energy, with some 200 million tons of CO2 emissions cut globally each simply by reusing scrap materials.

The fact recycled metal holds its premium quality after recycling is a gift, allowing us to protect valuable surface biodiversity and while preserving limited landfill space. Remanufacturing recycled metals has a far lesser impact on our environment than extracting raw materials, enabling us to save those precious metals for when they’re actually needed.

Work with industry experts at C.D.Dodd

Scrap metal recycling is an important sustainable industry, and C.D.Dodd are proud to be leaders in the safe recycling and thorough collection of scrap metal across WA.

Contact us today to discuss recycling your scrap, and to learn why the economic and environmental benefits mean you can’t afford not to recycle your unwanted metals.

Let’s get started

Perth

Gate 1, 521 Dundas Road, Forrestfield WA 6058

Karratha

Lot 109 Bedrock Turn, Gap Ridge Estate, Karratha WA 6714

Port Hedland

10 Trig Street, Wedgefield WA 6721

Kalgoorlie

1 Coath Road, Kalgoorlie West WA 6430