Recycle Metals
Raffles Gate's commitment to environmental stewardship is both global and local, and applies across our business. We work to protect the environment and conserve resources. By recycling metals and its by-products, we are greatly helping to preserve the environment.
Worldwide, over 400 million tonnes of metal is recycled each year. Metals can be recycled indefinitely without loosing any of their properties. They make up around 8% of the average household dustbin yet in 2003 the recycling rates for aluminium and ferrous metals as a percentage of their consumption were only 33% and 26% respectively. We can all play a part to increase this volume by actively sourcing and trading in recycle metals. Raffles Gate core recycle products are:
- Furnace Slag
- Scrap Vessels
- Scrap Steel
- Used Rails
- Scrap Aluminium
- Scrap Copper
We are constantly searching for new suppliers/end-users of the above listed recycle metals globally. If you are a seller or end-user of recycle metal, please mail to recycle-metals@rafflesgate.com for colaborations.
Facts on two of the most common recycled metals: Steel and Alumimium
Recycle Steel
Steel is mined from iron ore. Iron ore is plentiful but it too is usually combined with oxygen or sometimes carbon or sulphur. The iron ore is stripped in a blast furnace to reduce it to pig iron that can then be used in steel production. There are currently about 11 million tonnes per year of iron and steel scrap arisings. About 70% of this scrap is recovered. Of the remainder - 2/3 is landfilled. Recycling 1 tonne of steel scrap saves 80% of the CO2 emissions produced when making steel from iron ore
Every tonne of steel packaging recycled makes the following environmental savings:
- 1.5 tonnes of iron ore
- 0.5 tonnes of coal
- 40% of the water required in production
- 75% of the energy needed to make steel from virgin material
- 1.28 tonnes of solid waste Reduction of air emissions by 86%
- Reduction of water pollution by 76%
Recycle Aluminium
Aluminium is produced from bauxite, a clay-like ore that is rich in aluminium compounds. The aluminium is only found as a compound called alumina, which is a hard material consisting of aluminium combined with oxygen. This alumina has to be stripped of its oxygen in order to free the aluminium. The alumina is dissolved in a molten salt at a reduction plant and a powerful electric current is run though the liquid to separate the aluminium from the oxygen. This process uses large quantities of energy.
Recycling aluminium requires only 5% of the energy and produces only 5% of the CO2 emissions as compared with primary production and reduces the waste going to landfill. Aluminium can be recycled indefinitely, as reprocessing does not damage its structure. Aluminium is also the most cost-effective material to recycle.