why do people collect scrap metal/ aluminum, and what’s it used for/worth?
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Not exactly an ELI5, but I want to provide more context on the scrap metal market/technology.
I worked on an analyzer device that use high power laser and optical sensor to analyze metal composition. Our end customers are big scrap metal yards.
Scrap aluminum can come from soda can, cars, doors, etc… It is also mixed up with other metals. This mix of aluminum contains different types of alloy (soda cans are 3xxx, aircraft often uses 7xxx, etc). The whole scrap mix can melted to liquid and then molded into recycled metal. Except, this scrap mix wouldn’t be good for anything as the composition is not controlled.
Scrap yard often has a very complex sets of equipments that can sort out different metal scraps based on their property: steel via magnets, bronze/brass via color, and different types of aluminum based on Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). By isolating the bronze/brass, they can smelt that and resell the raw material at much higher price than scrap.
Within aluminum, being able to determine alloy/compositions of each scrap piece can allow scrap yards to create different “grades” of aluminum smelt batches. The lower grades can be sold to foreign countries. The high-end stuffs (think 7xxx for aircraft, 6061 for commercial uses) can be sold to manufacturers to use in conjunction with/in place of aluminum that are mined from the ground.
Aluminum recycling is a huge market recently due to the environmental concerns related to bauxite mining. The EU has requirements of how much Aluminum needs come from recycled source coming into effect soon. In the past, recycled aluminum are often low grade since there wasn’t a technology to sort scraps based on composition. In the last few years, that is changing.
When I deal with customers, they often mention loses in the hundred thousands per day if a sorting line is interrupted.
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