Copper is one of the most well known non-ferrous metals on earth. Renowned for its beauty and valued for its usefulness in many of the items we use today, copper is one of the single most sought after metals in the world.
Over the last 10,000 years, copper has been used for many things such as jewelry, weapons, water transport, cooking and currency. During modern times we have used copper to cool our vehicle engines and for items such as pipefittings and for the transfer of electricity to and throughout our homes. It’s truly no wonder that copper is as valuable as it is.
Scrap copper prices have been rising lately, however, the prices for scrap copper depend heavily on what type of scrap copper is being sold and the conditions of the market. In the United States the Commodities Exchange sets the price for scrap copper. Over the last several years, the prices of the different types of scrap copper have slowly, but steadily risen due to its popularity and demand. As the health of our environment becomes more of a concern to more people and recycling becomes more commonplace, the price of copper will continue to rise.
Copper is one of the most easily recycled materials on the planet. Most estimates show that roughly 80% of the copper that has ever been mined is still in use today due to recycling. Considering that high-grade copper scrap only requires simple re-melting and re-casting, it’s easy to see why copper is recycled and reused so often. Even if plastics or other metals contaminate the scrap, the refining process is simple and only requires electrolytic refining.
The recycling process starts with you, the consumer. Whether you leave your scrap copper by the roadside in a recycling bin or take it down to the local recycling plant makes no difference. The important thing is that you are recycling. Companies that collect or buy scrap copper also rely heavily on manufacturers that use copper in their products.
Keep in mind that recycling scrap copper does require some separation of the different grades of scrap. There are 22 different grades of scrap copper and each grade comes with its own pricing guidelines by the truckload (TL) or less than a truckload (LTL). A quick rundown of the different types of scrap copper shows No. 1 heavy scrap copper as the price leader per pound. No. 1 heavy scrap is followed by No. 2 scrap copper wire, soldered copper pipe, beryllium copper scrap, light scrap copper, copper turnings, No. 1 bare bright copper wire, No. 1 copper wire scrap, No. 2 copper wire scrap, No. 1 copper wire nodules, No. 2 copper wire nodules, No. 1 insulated copper wire, No. 2 insulated copper wire, No. 3 insulated copper wire, copper/aluminum BX cable scrap, copper/steel BX cable scrap, fractional electric motor coils, large electric motor coils, sealed motor coils, copper/aluminum rads, copper content scrap and finally, ‘other’ copper scrap, which is defined as any materials not defined by the previous grades of copper.
Copper is used in many of our everyday items and recycling copper is one of the easiest ways to help the environment. It decreases the amount of copper that needs to be mined and refined. It helps eliminate pollutants from both of these processes, especially the release of greenhouse gases such as CO2, which is considered to be one of the major causes of global warming. During the recycling process, roughly 90% of the copper is recycled from the scrap. Economically, this keeps the cost of new products that use copper down. Copper can also be recycled almost indefinitely.
This site is intended to give information about the many aspects and uses of copper and to promote the recycling of scrap copper. Much of this information is scattered across the Web on many different sites and can be hard to find, but this site houses nearly anything you would need to know about copper. How it is made, its many uses and how it can be recycled and reused are all covered here. Learn more about recycling copper and how it can help bring about economic growth, environmental health and personal financial gain by looking at the detailed explanations about copper on this site.