Recycling Aluminum Cans

We Must Recycle Aluminum Cans

Recycling Aluminum Cans

Regardless of how abundant aluminum is, recyclers still engage in the practice of recycling aluminum cans. Aluminum is the 13th element on the periodic table and it is a metallic element. It is a soft metal that is also ductile, malleable and lightweight. Aluminum constitutes approximately 8% of the earth’s crust. Bauxite is the ore that they produce aluminum from. The bottom-line: recycle aluminum cans.

This metal is a non-ferrous metal; it does not exhibit metallic properties. Also, it does not easily ignite. It is also corrosive resistant and can be easily cast, both of which are major reasons why we recycle aluminum cans. Due to the versatility of aluminum, manufacturers mostly use it after steel. Aluminum is used to make cans, while they usually mix it with magnesium to increase the can’s strength. However, the cans constitute a large percentage of aluminum.

How Important is Recycling Aluminum Cans?

Because of the high percentage of aluminum present in these cans, recycling aluminum cans serves as a source of aluminum. Today, one cannot overemphasize the widespread use of aluminum in the packaging of products in the manufacturing industry. Aluminum is used to package:

Recycling Aluminum Cans
  • Chemicals
  • Oils (brake oils, cooking oils, etc.)
  • Milk
  • Beverages (soda, etc.)
  • Vegetables (Tomatoes, sweet corn, etc.)

Manufacturers use aluminum cans to package virtually all kinds of perishables. Because of its wide use, recyclers have come to see reasons why we must recycle aluminum cans. The main reasons include:

  1. Saves Energy
  2. Source of Aluminum
  3. More Cost-effective
  4. Reduces Pollution

The process of recycling aluminum cans saves energy and resources. Recycling aluminum cans make use of only 5% of the energy and emissions required to mine aluminum from bauxite. This alone helps reduce the greenhouse effect and protect the ozone layer from emissions. Recycling aluminum cans can serve as a source of aluminum regardless of the presence of magnesium. This is because recyclers recycle aluminum cans repeatedly with little or no significant loss of its intrinsic properties. Also, when recycling aluminum cans, they retain their quality.

Recycle Aluminum Cans to Protect Natural Resources

Recycling Aluminum Cans

Recycling aluminum cans help protect natural resources like bauxite and provides an alternative aluminum source. About 75% of the first aluminum made is still in circulation. Recycling aluminum cans are very economic because of the huge amount of energy saved in recycling it. Approximately 95% of energy is saved from recycling aluminum cans. More so, recyclers melt the scraps from the production of aluminum and repeatedly use them. Recycling aluminum cans help save bauxite, chemical products, and electricity.

Recycling Aluminum Cans

As recyclers recycle aluminum cans, they reduce the rate of both air and soil pollution. Many recyclers focus their efforts recycling aluminum cans by recycling used beverage cans. Aluminum cans are non-biodegradable and if could cause problems if not properly managed. In addition, recycling aluminum cans reduce or prevent the release of carbon dioxide which occurs when mining for bauxite. This gas is toxic and if saturated in the air could cause acid rain. Acid rain could cause damage to both plants, life and properties.

Conclusion

In conclusion, by recycling aluminum cans, we can save energy as well as non-renewable fossil fuels. Furthermore, we can reduce landfill and air pollution by limiting the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We must recycle aluminum cans to save our environment. Contact Interco to recycle your aluminum cans.

What is E-Waste Recycling?

What is eWaste Recycling?

What is E-Waste Recycling?

Recyclers use the term eWaste or eScrap to describe business and consumer electronic products on the verge of retirement or already spoiled. Both terms represent end-of-life computer and electronic devices. For example:

  • Computers
  • Phones
  • Televisions
  • Fax machines
  • Stereos, etc.

Recycling computers and electronics helps re-purpose these devices, though there are still large amounts of eWaste yet to be dumped to landfills. The importance of eWaste recycling grows daily. The rate of eWaste recycling today is still very poor due to improper knowledge about this process.

Why Should You Recycle Computers and Electronics?

Rich Source of Raw Material: Approximately 10–15% of gold is recoverable from e-waste worldwide. Also, it is said that eWaste contains deposits of precious metals that estimate between 40 and 50 times costlier and richer than their ores beneath the earth’s surface.

Solid Waste Management: There is excessive land fill and solid waste. eWaste recycling helps prevent further degradation if agricultural land and curbs pollution.

Toxic Materials: Old electronic gadgets and devices contain toxic materials like mercury, lead, chromium and cadmium. Therefore, eWaste recycling helps assure proper processing, so that these devices do not release these toxic gases into the environment.

How to Recycle E-waste

What is E-Waste Recycling?

eWaste recycle requires a degree of care. Execute these steps carefully:

  1. Collection of the eWaste from dumping or deposit points.
  2. Break them with a hammer or by hammering.
  3. Separate individual components i.e. plastic, glass, copper, and other metallic materials.
  4. Take individual materials to their different recycling points for further processing.
  5. Pack non-recyclable materials and properly dispose them.

The disposal process takes a degree of care because the company keeps the environment in mind and abides by all safety and regulation laws. Recyclers must follow all EPA regulations during the processing of the computer and electronics items.

Benefits of E-waste Recycling

The list benefits of eWaste recycling to man and the environment at large grows daily.

Reduces Water, Air and Soil Pollution:

What is E-Waste Recycling?

Because of the toxic constituents of eWaste, indiscriminate dumping or disposal can be dangerous to human health and the environment. Residents of areas polluted by the improper disposal of computer and electronics risk developing serious diseases and experiencing certain medical conditions due to inhalation of these harmful substances.

In addition, unprocessed eWaste left on the ground seeps out chemicals that affect the soil, rendering it not conducive for agricultural use. Furthermore, when rain falls, these chemical wash off from the eWaste dumps and flows into rivers and streams. This could contaminate drinking water. Proper eWaste recycling reduces all these forms of pollution.

It Protects Natural Resources:

Most of the resources in nature are non-renewable. eWaste recycling allows the separation of these valuable materials and their recovery. In this way, companies can produce new products using the same materials. This helps reduce pollution, save energy, and protect natural resources.

Reduces the Space Required for Landfills:

What is E-Waste Recycling?

Waste is a global problem and governments around the world are in search to reduce the space need for landfills. Sometimes, these landfills are covering areas that are suitable for agriculture or even for housing. Also, most of the wastes left in landfills cannot dissolve and that’s when the real problems begin. By executing eWaste recycling, you will be able to reduce the space needed for landfills and directly reduce pollution.

eWaste Recycling Creates Employment:

If governments properly educate and enlighten citizens on the importance of eWaste recycling, then people will open new electronic waste recycling companies. Also, the existing ones like Interco will employ more workers that will help in the process. By utilizing this effort, governments support the local economy and protect nature at the same time.

Conclusion

The computer and electronics around us from old computers, laptops, and monitors all fall into eWaste. To learn more about eWaste recycling, contact Interco here.

Recycling Printed Circuit Boards

Recycling Printed Circuit Boards

Printed Circuit boards (PCB), also known as green boards, are designed specifically to support and facilitate the connection of electronic components. They accomplish this through their conductive tracks, pads and etched sheet of copper layer laminated on it.

First off, PCB can be found in the majority of the electronic gadgets and devices popular today. They serve as a conductive foundation where you fix other electronic components, such as capacitors, resistors, inductors and much more.

With its vast use in today’s electronics, printed circuit boards should be recycled when gadgets get spoiled or broken.

Why Recycle PCB?

Recycling Printed Circuit Boards

Recycling printed circuit boards that are populated with many components could yield more valuable materials like:

  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Platinum
  • Palladium

How? The process extracts components affixed to the boards. Recycling PCB recovers approximately 99 percent of the precious and scarce metals from the recycling process.

The copper part of the board is completely recyclable as a metallic material. Recycling PCB helps reduce depletion of natural resources such as copper, as processors often reuse these boards multiple times. Although, after recycling, they must test the boards as the recycling process might damage certain parts of the board.

In addition, because of the excessive use of this type of circuit board in the electronic manufacturing industries, recycling printed circuit boards reduces solid waste, landfill and land pollution.

How to Recycle PCB

Due to the nature of the intricacy of the boards themselves, recycling them poses difficulty because of the several chemicals, metals and glass fibers used in manufacturing them. Subsequently, in order to successfully recycle them, recyclers separate these components carefully to prevent total destruction of scarce materials.

Likewise, there are three main ways of recycling PCB: electrochemical process, hydro-metallurgy, and smelting process.

Recycling Printed Circuit Boards

These methods assist in recovering valuable electronic components, connectors and metal scraps. Hence, the most popular way of recycling PCB is through dismantling. This involves loosening the board from its components. The steps are as follows:

Recycling Printed Circuit Boards
  1. First, recycle haulers collect these used to damaged boards and ship them to recycling companies.
  2. Next, the company drills the boards and loosens them to remove components easily.
  3. Finally, they meticulously remove the components, namely the following:
    • Capacitors
    • TV plugs
    • Motors
    • Screws
    • LED
    • Transistors
    • Switches

Dismantling the boards requires special tools and meticulous handling in order to avoid damaging the board as well as its components. After dismantling, the recyclable materials (copper) melt and refine into new products. Finally, recyclers incinerate any non-recyclable materials for electricity production and properly filter waste water from the process before discharging it.

Conclusion

Lastly, pulling or picking parts off the boards and recycling them is neither economical nor practical. Because of how delicate they are, test PCB after successfully recycling a PCB to ensure functionality.

If you are interested in recycling Printed circuit boards, Interco offers a variety of recycling services.

Recycling Used Beverage Cans (UBC)

Most people do not consider recycling used beverage cans. They toss used beverage cans into the trash rather than in to recycle bins as soon as they consume its contents. But is this right?

Recycling Used Beverage Cans (UBC)

Recyclers refer to used beverage cans as UBC when they are recycling used beverage cans. These UBC are very much recyclable because of their metallic properties and composition.

In addition, aluminum is the main material in producing UBC which has many purposes i.e.

  • Reproduction of cans
  • Foils
  • Kitchen utensils
  • Window frames
  • Vehicle parts (engine compartments)
  • Airplane parts, etc.

Why Recycle Used Beverage Cans?

Recycling Used Beverage Cans (UBC)

Recycling used beverage cans is very important. Recycling aluminum make use of approximately 5% of the total energy and emission required to produce aluminum from its ore (bauxite).

This means it is significantly cheaper, economic and greener (in term of reduced emission) to recycle used beverage cans than to mine bauxite and refine it for aluminum. At Interco recycling used beverage cans is so important.

Furthermore, recycling used beverage cans over and over again is possible without significant loss of its aluminum (metallic) properties. By recycling these cans, it helps conserve non-renewable fossils needed to make new aluminum from bauxite which in turn reduces:

  1. Energy consumption (approximately 95% energy)
  2. Emission of gases i.e. carbon dioxide
  3. Global warming (greenhouse effect)

How to Recycle UBC?

Recycling Used Beverage Cans (UBC)

How then do they get recycled? For the steps involved in recycling used beverage cans, read on:

Recycling Used Beverage Cans (UBC)
  1. The aluminum cans are first collected from can recycle bins or UBC depositories.
  2. Then the recycling company or manufacturing industry uses a shredder to shred the aluminum cans. This helps removes any colored coating.
  3. They subject the aluminum shreds to intense heat temperature in a furnace to melt.
  4. Finally, the molten aluminum is then poured into casts (ingot) to set. Over a million cans get produced from each of these ingots.

Conclusion

Like earlier stated, it is possible to recycle aluminum many times without degrading its intrinsic properties. Thus, if you desire to recycle or selling your UBC, Interco is the top company for recycling used beverage cans in the Midwest. They offer quality metal recycling services. Contact them here.

Recycling Used Lead-Acid Auto Batteries

Recycling Used Lead-Acid Auto Batteries

Recycling Used Lead-Acid Auto Batteries

Recycling used lead-acid auto batteries is very important because of the nature of their composition and uses. People use lead-acid batteries as backup power supplies and to power things like:

  • Automobiles
  • Electric scooters
  • Electric wheelchairs, etc.

The acid provides the electrochemical effect that powers these machines. Like every other battery or power source, the lead-acid auto batteries deplete or dilute and the chemicals start losing its efficiency due to:

Because of the toxicity of the lead-acid batteries, most countries have prohibited the indiscriminate disposal of them i.e. incinerating or dumping, and have highly recommended recycling used lead-acid auto batteries.

Why Recycle Lead-Acid Auto Batteries?

Recycling Used Lead-Acid Auto Batteries

Why recycle your car batteries or lead-acid batteries? Is recycling used lead-acid auto batteries recommended for disposing of them?

These batteries contain acids; toxic acids i.e. sulfuric acid which is very corrosive. They indiscriminate disposal of these batteries can be detrimental to human lives and the environment may lead to:

  • Rainwater
  • The decimation of agricultural land
  • Death of plants, etc.

Therefore, recycling used lead-acid auto batteries is necessary.

How to Recycle Lead-Acid Auto Batteries?

Recycling used lead-acid auto batteries should be done carefully and with all consciousness, preferably in a controlled environment far from residential areas. So, what are the steps involved?

Recycling Used Lead-Acid Auto Batteries
  1. First, recycling companies collect dead or used lead-acid auto batteries for battery depositories.
  2. The recycling company then neutralizes the acids. They Introduce a base that subdues the corrosive properties (toxicity) of the acid so it can be safely disposed of.
  3. A hammer mill shatters the battery or breaks it apart. The process is referred to as hammering.
  4. Then, place broken pieces in a vat, so that the lead plates and heavy materials sink to the bottom while the plastic floats.
  5. They transport the polypropylene plastics into a plastic recycler to melt and refine them.
  6. Cleaning the lead plates and heating them in furnaces so that they melted. After this, cast the molten lead into an ingot mold. After some minutes, the impurities float to the top of the cast and they scrape them away.
  7. Finally, they re-melt the pure ingot casts and use them in new batteries.

Conclusion

Therefore, because of the acid content, it is highly advisable not to try recycling used lead-acid auto batteries by yourself. You can take or sell them to Interco for recycling purposes.