RECYCLING
Steel and aluminum are both mined from ores, and are made in a similar way. The essential ingredient in steel making is iron ore. Iron ore is plentiful, but we cannot use it as it occurs in nature. Iron is usually combined with oxygen, or with other elements, like carbon and sulfur. We must smelt the iron ore-strip or reduce it of its oxygen-to get to the iron.
It takes a great deal of energy to reduce iron oxides. An oxide is a compound with oxygen and some other element. The reduction takes place in a very hot blast furnace. A chemical reaction takes place in the blast furnace, and the iron is freed from the oxygen. This free iron (called pig iron by steel makers because it forms a pattern that looks like tiny piglets surrounding their mother) is used to make steel.
Steel recycling saves a lot of energy. It is much more energy efficient to use steel scrap to make new steel than to mine the iron ore and then smelt it in a blast furnace. It takes about 75 percent less energy to make steel from recycled materials than it does from iron ore. That's why today's steel makers always use some steel scrap to make new steel products.
Steel is probably the easiest material to separate from the rest of the solid waste stream. Steel is attracted to magnets, so special magnetic belts can be used to separate steel cans from other recyclables. This is a much more efficient method than the labor-intensive hand-sorting necessary with other recyclables, such as plastics.
Steel can recycling follows almost the same process as aluminum can recycling. Steel cans, along with other steel scrap, are melted in a furnace and then poured into casters that continuously roll and flatten the steel into sheets. Recycled steel cans can be made into new cars, girders for buildings, or new food cans. In the U.K., steel cans and other steel products contain at least 25 percent recycled steel, with some containing nearly 100 percent recycled steel.
Like aluminum, steel can also be recycled again and again. It does not lose any of its strength or quality in the recycling process. It can be a never-ending process that continues to save energy and resources.
Various Size Containers Supplied at no charge to the customer
Cable stripping
Regional Collection service
Scrap & Recycling Audit Service
Regular collections
Top prices paid for recyclable metals
New Service Available
We are able to offer the best prices for your waste materials or collection costs for Non-recyclables. We are always available and for the best and most recent prices you can send photographs to the email address or if you have a cameraphone you can send images via MMS to the mobile number listed in the contact area of the site.