People usually associate the word “scrap” with “trash”; though this is true in some situations, scrap metal is not trash. Instead, it is metal leftover from various manufacturing processes, as well as recyclable items; items commonly recycled include household metals (i.e. tin or aluminium cans), car parts, and other “worn-out” pieces of metal (i.e. piping or appliances). The recycled metal is then used to manufacture other items. Reducing the environmental impact of mining is one advantage of this practice; another advantage is that recycling and re-using metal scraps reduces the amount of metals in landfills.

The first step in metal recycling is to separate the different types of metals; this is usually done with magnets, as ferrous (containing iron) materials are magnetic. Iron and iron containing metals can be melted down over and over without losing a significant amount of strength. Mining for iron ore does significant damage to the environment; if all iron metals were recycled, there would be a significant positive effect on the planet.

The most commonly recycled non-ferrous material is aluminium. Though this metal is considered to be the most plentiful on the planet, the acquisition of aluminium, like iron, is damaging to the environment. At a recycling centre, scrap aluminium is melted down, combined with a small amount of new metal, and processed to be used again; this uses 5% of the energy required in production of new aluminium. As people continue to become more conscious the necessity of conservation, the metal scrap recycling market continues to grow.