Retail Recycling…What You Need To Know…

Posted on October 9, 2011 · Posted in PK Metals Blog

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On any given weekend, we see hundreds of people come to our facility with truckloads of materials. Plumbers bring their excess brass and copper; fence contractors bring their excess PVC fence, others bring aluminum siding and the weekend warrior will bring the scrap from his or her latest project. The scrap is then put into crates, where it is weighed on the scale, and our customers are then given a preprogrammed credit card to receive payment from an ATM machine. This process ensures that excess materials do not end up in a landfill, and are instead carefully recycled and reused.

The key is to understand the type of scrap that the average home has lying around the house. During your next spring cleaning, take a minute to look around and see what material you have in your house that can be recycled. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, materials that contain metals, such as aluminum, copper, iron, etc, can be recycled and reused at a scrap metal recycling facility. The price will depend on how much the metal is worth in the markets on that day.

With the holidays around the corner, there will be plenty of cardboard and paper products lying around the house. A beneficial project for your neighborhood can be to collect all of the cardboard boxes that have been accumulated during the holiday season, and bring them to a scrap metal recycling facility. It may not seem like a lot in your one household, but an entire community can really have an impact on the environment by recycling all of the cardboard.

Are you going to be attending an office party, where hundreds of people will be using plastic bottles and aluminum cans? Take a minute to think about the impact you can have if all of those plastic bottles and aluminum cans from your office can be brought to a recycling facility, where they can be recycled and reused in a responsible manner.

The unfortunate reality is that if the public doesn’t take action, most of the cardboard that you have tossed to the side during the holiday season will end up in landfill for many years. By taking the initiative to recycle cardboard and paper products, this will ensure that this cardboard is recycled and reused in a way that can protect the environment.

Most Americans use enough paper and wood products each year to consume a 100-foot tall Douglas fir tree. In 2007 the U.S. population recycled more than 56% of its paper products. This impressive figure equals nearly 360 pounds of paper for each man, woman, and child in America. More than 400 paper mills in the U.S. use at least some recovered materials in their manufacturing processes.

The retail recycling capabilities of scrap metal recycling companies can make a tremendous difference in your community. They have the knowledge and facilities to recycle the excess waste of the retail consumer. The next time you drive by a facility, take a minute to drop in and ask for information on how you can help recycle the excess waste in your community.