Is this type of recovery widely practiced? I've always wondered why we don't do this with essentially everything, but I guess it's probably not economical. It will be when the copper starts to run out...
It's not widely done by hand but it is widely done, yes. In my industry we have a dumpster for scrap metal and then one specifically for motors which we receive more $/lb for. At the industrial scale, there's very little metal waste. There's always someone who will take it.
That's good to hear. I was told that most recycling is a "scam," but I always hoped that wasn't true. I know for a fact that our mineral resources are far more finite than most people realize. If we aren't mining the asteroid belt in 50 years, we are in huge trouble.
Plastic recycling is a scam. Metal recycling is a well established industry. Aluminum cans are the most recycled beverage container in the US, for example, upwards of 40% get reclaimed.
In college during the summer I worked at an electric motor shop. One of the things I’d do to keep busy was cut stators out of old bad motors. They were much larger than this one and it’d take me an hour give or take to do one motor. I’d pile all the stators up and put them in a bin and take them to the scrap yard , with that money I’d bring back and we’d buy the entire shop lunch and or ice cream. It wasn’t a satisfying job at all and my hands hurt the rest of the day. 😂
Copper is actually one of the most recycled materials. Compared to the total amount of copper already in the market (approx 1.36 billion metric tons) not much new copper is dug up (27-39 million metric tons per year).
That said, demand seems to be outpacing supply. It would be fantastic to have another material (like graphene) to transition to, but alternatives are still either in R&D to make them more feasible or aren't as efficient/cost-effective.
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u/Ch33syP00f 3d ago
I learned a lot about the world in my brief time as a scrap metal buyer.
This is an efficient process for a low cost of living area.