With £90m of valuable metals sitting in UK landfills, it’s a wonder that we’re not making better use of our scrap metal.
Sure, it seems worthless when it’s no longer fit to function for your business. But your business could actually benefit from an active effort to recycle it.
Not only that, but it could ensure that your industry continues having enough metal to function!
However, you probably want to understand the benefits of scrap metal recycling in more depth.
If that’s the case, continue reading to understand why your business should make metal recycling a habit.
Which Metals are Recyclable?
Metals are classified as “ferrous” or “non-ferrous”. Ferrous metals are metals created with iron and carbon.
Non-ferrous metals consist of all other metals, including precious metals.
These non-ferrous metals include aluminium, zinc, copper, and more. Precious metals include gold, platinum, silver, and more.
Ferrous metals are more popular to recycle. But in reality, any metal is recyclable, including non-ferrous ones.
1. Extra Cash
As with most other types of recycling, scrap metal recycling can offer a decent amount of extra cash for your business’s pockets.
While it won’t substitute the profit your business uses the metal for, it’s a great financial perk that can offset business costs.
Of course, the financial return your business will get on scrap metal isn’t very predictable.
The money your business gets back is gauged by contemporary market trends and potential additional fees.
However, you can use third-party software or contact your local metal recycling centre for additional predictability.
So while recycling metal cannot function as an income in itself, it can help your business save on costs.
These minor savings will accumulate in the long run, helping your business lower the overall cost of production.
2. Environmental Preservation
Metals are created by fossil fuels, which makes virgin metal production highly impactful on business’s pockets and the environment.
Even if it’s not viable for your business to stop using metal, your business can lower its environmental impact through metal recycling.
After all, fossil fuels are set to run out in just a few decades. That is, unless crucial changes are made immediately.
Otherwise, there won’t be much metal your business can use for the decades to come.
So environment aside, metal recycling matters to your industry and all the businesses within it – including yours.
Either way, recycling metal offers the best chance at achieving both environmental and business improvement in the long term.
Producing also only requires a fraction of the energy used to make the original metals.
There aren’t many reasons to not recycle metal, but for the sake of our planet, preserving our environment is the chief reason to do it.
3. Natural Metal Preservation
Recycled metals are just as good as virgin metals.
So if your business was concerned about potentially lowered quality through recycling, understand that recycled scrap still reaches industry-standard strength.
Not only that, but metals can be recycled over and over again.
Even machinery or objects made of recycled materials can go to the scrap metal recycling centre again.
4. Lower Hazardous Waste in Landfills
Metals can take perhaps thousands of years to break down.
This slow pace is disproportionate to the quick pace of virgin metal production, resulting in tonnes of metal taking up space in a landfill.
That’s a lot more than the Earth can currently handle.
But it’s not only about taking up our planet’s surface area.
Metals like lead and mercury can leak into these landfills, making them virtually unhabitable.
Since these toxic metals don’t decompose for thousands of years unless treated, this only doubles the environmental risk of metals sitting in landfills.
Creating more landfills is only a band-aid solution to this problem.
Instead, recycled metal ensures that there is less excess metal being produced that could dominate and poison landfills.
5. Abiding by Recycling Standards
The concerns listed above detail why there’s been such a giant push for corporations to recycle their scrap metal.
This push is driven not only by consumers, but also by the recycling industry.
Metal recycling is a huge part of their initiative, and there are many benefits to cooperating.
Doing so can provide all of these incredibly aforementioned benefits to your business.
Why Your Business’s Contribution Matters
Currently, only about 46% of recyclable metals were recycled in 2019.
This is an improvement from the previous year, which showed that 45% of recyclable metals were actually recycled.
Our efforts are producing a positive impact. In fact, it’s reported that by using recycled metals, the EU continued to save around 200 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.
However, 46% is still far cry from the desired 100% percentage.
While it’s possible that progress can become exponential, this is only possible with as much cooperation from corporations as possible.
So with your business’s help, we can start seeing a triple-digit percentage during our lifetime.
After all, there are numerous and mutually positive benefits for the environment and your business through scrap metal recycling.
Metal Recycling: Good for the Environment and Your Business
Whether your business’s primary concern involves the planet or profit, metal recycling is key to both.
You’ll see the difference with both in the long run, both in terms of environmental impact and your bookkeeping.
At ANIS Trend d.o.o, we offer baling solutions for companies who care about minimizing space wastage.
This includes space that may be wasted by uncompressed scrap metal, which only eats away at a business’s profits and the Earth.
So if you’re interested in our solutions, contact us today!
