Because it is profitable, copper recycling is well organised. However, in some cases the cost of extracting the copper makes it less viable. The situation is the same for precious metals, which appear in electronic waste in ever-decreasing amounts. "You never throw out a piece of copper", says Pierre Blazy, director of the Copper Information Centre. According to him, copper is so valuable it has always been collected and recycled. "You can melt copper thousands of times, and it still retains its quality" adds Jean-Pierre Parisi, of Triade Électronique. This characteristic means that today copper recycling is a tried and tested industrial process. Everything that can be technically and economically processed is recycled.
There are three major sources of copper for recycling. The first is ashes and residues from metallurgical processes, such as slags, skimmings, anodic sludge, alloys, and foundry waste. These are generally recycled on site, or sold to be processed, or stabilized if they cannot be recycled. The second source is offcuts from materials such as sheet metal, bars, tubes, or copper wires, and from finished products. This new metal, once it has been pulverized, is resold directly for reprocessing via a direct relationship with a third party. The last source, which accounts for about half of all recycled copper, includes a wide variety of worn-out products: cables, munitions, construction debris, coins etc. Scrap metal merchants collect the used copper, which is pulverized and then resold to refineries by means of intermediary dealers. This well-organised market results in copper recycling rates in excess of 95% for some products, such as electric cables. However, the percentage drops when the waste is not homogeneous. "In these cases, recovery of the copper elements requires sorting which can be expensive and difficult", says Pierre Blazy, which may explain why only 40% of the copper consumed in France is recycled, about 200,000 tonnes per year.
In spite of this limitation, and the long lifespan of copper products, the proportion of copper which is recycled is increasing.
It must be said that despite the cost of collection, and increasingly strict environmental constraints, producing secondary metals from recycled copper is cheaper than manufacturing primary metal from ore, of which global resources now amount to less than thirty years supply. And energy savings range from 60 to 80%. The contribution of end-of-life products to the supply of copper is therefore expected to grow, especially waste from electrical and electronic equipment, which contain on average 20% copper. The yearly output of 1.5 million tonnes of this type of waste is already increasing by 3 to 5% per year, and a new European directive specifies a goal of recycle rates between 65 and 80%, depending on the type of product, by the end of 2006.
The industry is now getting itself organized but is encountering some obstacles, mostly technical. "There is no problem with recovering classic products, such as electric cables", explains Jean-Pierre Parisi, "but it's more difficult for some alloys, such as the copper-beryllium used for flexible welds. In this situation, the cost of treating the beryllium, which is dangerous, is higher than the price of the recycled copper". So it is not always worth doing.
(Environnement Magazine, France)
There are three major sources of copper for recycling. The first is ashes and residues from metallurgical processes, such as slags, skimmings, anodic sludge, alloys, and foundry waste. These are generally recycled on site, or sold to be processed, or stabilized if they cannot be recycled. The second source is offcuts from materials such as sheet metal, bars, tubes, or copper wires, and from finished products. This new metal, once it has been pulverized, is resold directly for reprocessing via a direct relationship with a third party. The last source, which accounts for about half of all recycled copper, includes a wide variety of worn-out products: cables, munitions, construction debris, coins etc. Scrap metal merchants collect the used copper, which is pulverized and then resold to refineries by means of intermediary dealers. This well-organised market results in copper recycling rates in excess of 95% for some products, such as electric cables. However, the percentage drops when the waste is not homogeneous. "In these cases, recovery of the copper elements requires sorting which can be expensive and difficult", says Pierre Blazy, which may explain why only 40% of the copper consumed in France is recycled, about 200,000 tonnes per year.
In spite of this limitation, and the long lifespan of copper products, the proportion of copper which is recycled is increasing.
It must be said that despite the cost of collection, and increasingly strict environmental constraints, producing secondary metals from recycled copper is cheaper than manufacturing primary metal from ore, of which global resources now amount to less than thirty years supply. And energy savings range from 60 to 80%. The contribution of end-of-life products to the supply of copper is therefore expected to grow, especially waste from electrical and electronic equipment, which contain on average 20% copper. The yearly output of 1.5 million tonnes of this type of waste is already increasing by 3 to 5% per year, and a new European directive specifies a goal of recycle rates between 65 and 80%, depending on the type of product, by the end of 2006.
The industry is now getting itself organized but is encountering some obstacles, mostly technical. "There is no problem with recovering classic products, such as electric cables", explains Jean-Pierre Parisi, "but it's more difficult for some alloys, such as the copper-beryllium used for flexible welds. In this situation, the cost of treating the beryllium, which is dangerous, is higher than the price of the recycled copper". So it is not always worth doing.
(Environnement Magazine, France)
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