Copper is a metal widely used in electrical goods and services.
As with a lot of electrical products, technological advances result in these devices being phased out after becoming redundant.
This leaves a large amount of copper available for manufacturers to reuse at cheaper prices, and is far easier to procure and process as opposed to mining.
This is only part of the reason that copper recycling is such a large industry globally.
Copper is used in such a wide variety of adaptations that it's around you all the time.
Look at your doorknob, or the laptop or tablet you are using to read this article, or in your kitchen and then look out your home.
From cars to street lamps, copper provides something in each of these products and goods.
This makes the metal a necessity and that's what drives such large quantities of copper being used, re-used and recycled.
Let's take a quick look at the advantages that recycling copper can offer manufacturers and consumers both.
Low Costs to manufacturers As opposed to mining and processing copper, recycling is a much cheaper option.
It takes away the cost of heavy machinery purchase or lease, it takes away the cost of transporting raw mined copper to processing plants, and it goes on and on.
IN fact we should go on.
The energy costs alone? They are 20% lower when recycling copper as opposed to mining for it.
Lower costs mean manufacturers can count on higher margins, but the qualities of copper mean that quality does not have to be compromised.
Lower cost goods Modern business practices believe a fair bit in value addition.
This means bits and pieces of the processing story of a product where value has been added to the product, and as a result, the end user experience.
These features add premiums to a product (think iPhones).
Cheaper components however, realise in savings for end users as the per unit cost decreases, and pricing is an extremely competitive market for all goods.
For every but saved, the firm can make the product cheaper, and therefore more accessible, for a much larger market by passing on the savings in the way of lower pricing.
Lower costs to the environment There is very little that meets the criteria of being a product that is fiscally conservative, promises a fairly solid stream of income and also ticks all the green boxes.
Copper recycling does exactly that.
By virtue of being a metal that can be re-used and recycled, copper provides respite to the constant extraction of resources that is happening around the planet.
Being as adaptable as it is, as malleable and as easy to recycle into new avatars, copper is a unique metal.
And remember the point made earlier? Its 20% cheaper to recycle copper as opposed to mining, extracting, transporting and processing copper.
With numerous benefits, to the economy, and with so many inducements to recycle copper would have been the poster child of the recycling movement.
But copper provides more; it helps save the earth, acts responsibly and is a prized catch for scrap traders worldwide.
As with a lot of electrical products, technological advances result in these devices being phased out after becoming redundant.
This leaves a large amount of copper available for manufacturers to reuse at cheaper prices, and is far easier to procure and process as opposed to mining.
This is only part of the reason that copper recycling is such a large industry globally.
Copper is used in such a wide variety of adaptations that it's around you all the time.
Look at your doorknob, or the laptop or tablet you are using to read this article, or in your kitchen and then look out your home.
From cars to street lamps, copper provides something in each of these products and goods.
This makes the metal a necessity and that's what drives such large quantities of copper being used, re-used and recycled.
Let's take a quick look at the advantages that recycling copper can offer manufacturers and consumers both.
Low Costs to manufacturers As opposed to mining and processing copper, recycling is a much cheaper option.
It takes away the cost of heavy machinery purchase or lease, it takes away the cost of transporting raw mined copper to processing plants, and it goes on and on.
IN fact we should go on.
The energy costs alone? They are 20% lower when recycling copper as opposed to mining for it.
Lower costs mean manufacturers can count on higher margins, but the qualities of copper mean that quality does not have to be compromised.
Lower cost goods Modern business practices believe a fair bit in value addition.
This means bits and pieces of the processing story of a product where value has been added to the product, and as a result, the end user experience.
These features add premiums to a product (think iPhones).
Cheaper components however, realise in savings for end users as the per unit cost decreases, and pricing is an extremely competitive market for all goods.
For every but saved, the firm can make the product cheaper, and therefore more accessible, for a much larger market by passing on the savings in the way of lower pricing.
Lower costs to the environment There is very little that meets the criteria of being a product that is fiscally conservative, promises a fairly solid stream of income and also ticks all the green boxes.
Copper recycling does exactly that.
By virtue of being a metal that can be re-used and recycled, copper provides respite to the constant extraction of resources that is happening around the planet.
Being as adaptable as it is, as malleable and as easy to recycle into new avatars, copper is a unique metal.
And remember the point made earlier? Its 20% cheaper to recycle copper as opposed to mining, extracting, transporting and processing copper.
With numerous benefits, to the economy, and with so many inducements to recycle copper would have been the poster child of the recycling movement.
But copper provides more; it helps save the earth, acts responsibly and is a prized catch for scrap traders worldwide.