Why should your foundry develop a recycling programs?
Metalcasting facilities are critical partners in the nation’s recycling efforts. Metalcasting facilities are crucial in the domestic recycling infrastructure by creating a market and healthy demand for scrap metal throughout the U.S. Domestic metalcasting facilities recycle millions of tons of discarded scrap metal annually into new products such as engine blocks, train wheels, manhole covers, fire hydrants, pumps, valves aircraft parts, golf clubs and hip replacement parts. Foundries recycle all types of metal including iron, steel, aluminum, brass, copper, titanium and a variety of other non-ferrous metals. Metals are virtually unique among materials because they can be recycled indefinitely without losing their inherent properties.
Is Recycling Good Business?
Purchasing recycled feedstocks is very beneficial to the bottom line and makes good business sense. Making castings from recycled metal significantly reduces energy usage, transport costs, refining energy, water and other resource expenses. Minimizing recycling is one of the largest expenses faced by individual facilities, and that is the purchase of charge materials. Metalcasting sands are high quality industrial sands, costing from $38-65 per ton, so internal industry reclamation and reuse efforts result in significant cost savings. According to an industry study, the average sand grain is reclaimed and reused an average of eight times. Diverting metalcasting byproducts from landfill disposal into reuse onsite and then beneficial use offsite reduces disposal costs and saves landfill space. Improving public perception of your company as an environmentally sensitive company can also increase tangible benefits, such as lowering legal costs and time spent addressing community concerns about your overall operation. Foundries want to continue to be recycling leaders and responsible stewards of the environment, especially when doing so can also improve the bottom-line.
Recycling Promotes Sustainability of Both the Earth’s Resources and Your Company!
Resource conservation, reuse and recycling are important parts of the global movement toward sustainability. The U.S. EPA and other partners have embarked on an effort to close the recycling loop by focusing on reusing and recycling the byproducts of manufacturing industries.