Metal Associates – Recycling Copper Wire

Copper has quickly become one of the more expensive metals to manufacture with. It is a very limited resource, and it is costly to extract. As a result, there is a growing market for recycled copper wire. Recycling old copper wire is beneficial because it reduces the amount of new material needed when manufacturing copper products and it means less waste ends up being dumped in a landfill. Of course, there are a few steps to the recycling process, but it can still be very worthwhile.

If the old copper wire is covered in any kind of insulation, this needs to be removed before the copper can be melted back down and recycled for new purposes. A mechanical process can be used to strip the insulation from the old wire and then run it through an incinerator for processing. A high temperature incinerator is necessary to remove any contaminants from the copper and destroy all traces of the insulation. This cannot be accomplished in an open fire because the heat is not high enough and the chemicals that are released could be harmful to anyone who inhales them. Besides human health concerns, there is also a risk that the contaminants that are released into the atmosphere could end up in the ground or in a water source, damaging the local environment and posing an indirect threat to any life in the area.

Many metal recycling companies will no longer accept copper wire that has been stripped using an open fire because of the contamination. As this practice is enforced, the idea is that more people will find a company with an incinerator that can strip the copper at high temperatures for them, safely recycling the material.

At Metal Associates, some of the copper that we provide to our clients has been sourced from safely recycled copper wire. We are proud to be part of the chain of a responsible recycling solution where old materials can be repurposed and put to new uses. Copper is still a very popular material in many applications because of its color, highly malleable nature and low-resistance to electricity which makes it highly conductive. We offer copper in a wide variety of forms to meet the unique needs of our customers.