How to identify Recyclable Metals at Home

buyscrapng February 20, 2025 No Comments

Most times we don’t ever sort out our trash. Do you know how much harm it does to our environment and our personal health? A lot! Shocking, right? Wrong disposal of our waste is one of the biggest causes of drainage blockage and sickness in the areas affected. This is indeed disheartening, isn’t it?. How can we stop this wrong disposal of waste, ultimately dispose of waste properly, keep our drainages clean, and create a healthier environment? Because the state of our drainage is indeed disheartening, isn’t it? To make a change, it all begins with you. If you’re new here, you’re in the right place. We are all about recycling and keeping the environment clean. I know you are eager to be a part of the green movement; today’s topic has a little twist. I’m going to give you all the necessary information you need to identify recyclable metals at home. Let’s get into it, shall we?

The Importance of Recycling Metals

The importance of recycling metals cannot be overemphasized. Honestly speaking, do I even need to speak on this? Just kidding, let’s dive right in!

1. Improves environmental hygiene: This is a common fact; the more you recycle, the less waste there will be! This helps in maintaining a clean environment, as every metal recycled is properly repurposed and used to create something meaningful and put back into society for proper use. Basic summary: it minimizes pollution, which equals improved environmental hygiene.
2. Reduction of production cost: If you repurpose what already exists, there would be absolutely no need to go through the hassle of the production process that is more expensive, involves the mining of ores, and leads to increased usage of fossil fuels. Did you know that this will in turn affect you? The increase in the cost of production will lead to a raise in the cost of our precious cans of goodness, which can all be caused by the wrong disposal of a metal can. So next time you see a metal can, be sure to recycle it properly to save the cost of production.
3. Conserving natural resources: Above, I discussed how the mining process will be reduced once we actively participate in recycling metals. Imagine what would happen to our natural resources if we don’t. They will be exploited! Leaving our land honestly affected, causing harm to nature, and this also affects the circle of life. (Yes, I pulled out some Lion King lines, but in my defense, it’s the truth.)

Understanding Metal Recycling Basics

This part is quite practical and simple to understand and remember. They include:

1. Identification: Sounds easy, right? Metals are those shiny things that have a silver appearance. If you agreed to that, you’re not entirely wrong, but you’re not exactly right. Metals are classified. Bet you didn’t know that, right? Now you do. I’ll dive deeper into the four main classifications of metals later on. Concerning the shiny appearance, that’s a popular way to identify metals, and that helps when recycling. Buckle up and let’s proceed.
2. Collecting: Every time you picked up a metal can, that was you collecting. In this case, we’re talking about the act of collecting that can be done with a purpose to recycle.
3. Sorting: Remember the  four classifications I hinted at above? This is where you’d be using that knowledge to sort them out so you can successfully recycle them according to their groups. Preferably using different packaging methods for each type.
4. Transportation: This depends; you can give recyclable metals to the garbage disposal company in bags or decide to recycle for incentives and gather a lot more and contact a recycling company that would pay you for recycling metals.

These are the basics you need to understand in metal recycling. Let’s go a bit in-depth on how to recognize these metals and successfully sort them by types, and guess what? You’d be surprised that some of these recyclable metals are already in your home!

Identifying Recyclable Metals

You are welcome to the good stuff. These are simple characteristics of these metals that can help you identify and classify these metals that are within your home for proper recycling, and they are stress-free. All listed below can be recycled.

• Common Household Recyclable Metals
  • Aluminum: Has a shiny appearance (malleable), is lightweight, is soft to touch, and a good example is a beverage can.
  • Steel: Often of a grey appearance, sometimes but rarely, it can have a shining appearance, and this is often referred to as stainless steel. Primarily, steel is an alloy of carbon and iron; it can be hard or soft, depending on the manufacturing process. It can be found in refrigerators, washing machines, pipes, and cars.
  • Copper: This has a reddish-orange color and is soft and malleable. It is commonly used for the conduction of electricity and heat. It can be found in pots, pans, wires, certain coins, air conditioning and smartphones, you heard me right, smart phones!
  • Brass: This has a reddish-gold or bright gold, or on some rare occasions a silvery-white color, and is very hard. It can be found in fans, screws, door handles, jewelry, and sinks.

Visual Clues for Identification of Recyclable Metals

Below are some tests that can help you identify and classify these metals in your home.

Magnet Test

In this method, you’d have to make use of a magnet to test if the metal is magnetic. Yes, some metals are not magnetic. Below are the results of testing the different classes of recyclable metals with a magnet.

1. Aluminum: Non-magnetic.
2. Steel: This result depends on the grade of steel; most steels are magnetic, but a grade like stainless steel is non-magnetic.
3. Copper: This also has some defining factors. Normally, it cannot be picked up by a magnet, but then again, it repels a powerful magnet.
4. Brass: Non-magnetic test

Density Test

This is very important when you want to know how much your metals weigh without the use of a scale. We’re going to dive into some mathematics here; don’t worry, it’ll be fun. What is density? Density is the ratio of an object’s mass to its volume.

What is a density test for metals? This test measures how much a given amount of metal weighs. Basically measuring its mass and dividing it by its volume. This can be applied to all the metals listed. First, you weigh the object in air, then you weigh it in water. When weighing in water, these metals might be dense or not so dense. The metals might heavily displace water volume depending on their existing mass, or not. So the level of density of the metal depends greatly on the mass of the metal.

Sound Test

This is used to determine how much sound can pass through a metal. It is used to test the sonority of the metal.

Tips for Effective Metal Recycling

• Cleaning and Preparing Metals

This helps to reduce pollution and reduce the risk of infection from bacteria growing on the metal.

• Sorting Metals for Recycling

Using this article, you can easily sort out metals into their different categories. Here’s a little side tip, the use of plastic bags help with this sorting process as you can label different waste bags according to the classes of metals.

• Finding Recycling Facilities

Proper metal recycling is not complete until the metal to be recycled gets to the recycling company. Have no idea of which recycling companies exist around you? I introduce you to BuyScrap. We’re timely and efficient, and we have our locations at 5 Shomide Street, Idi Mangoro, Agege, Lagos State.

Common Recycling Mistakes to Avoid

1. Improper separation of items that are to be recycled.
2. Adding dirt to the clean recyclable material which ultimately leads to contamination.
3. Recycling the wrong items: Not all items are to be recycled; for example, bubble wraps and certain plastic bags are not meant to be recycled except when some exceptions are made, and this will be made known to the public. To avoid this it is better to have a comprehensive list of items that are recyclable and items that are not. That will be discussed another time.

Recyclable Metals: The Impact of Metal Recycling

The proper disposal of metals reduces contamination, reduces the cost of production, lowers drainage blockage, reduces the mining of raw materials, and helps us maintain a healthy environment by reducing our eco-footprint.

Encouraging Sustainable Practices

With the amazing benefits of metal recycling, it’s high time we adapt sustainable practices for our metal disposal. The use of plastic bags for separation and proper disposal reduces pollution. Don’t you want to be a part of preserving nature and our natural resources? Recycle metals right and be a part of the green movement!