Recycling Metals Worksheet

Information from the British Metal Recycling Association (BMRA) website Metal recycling is a £4.5billion UK industry, processing ferrous and non ferrous metal scrap into vital secondary raw material for the smelting of new metals. The industry employs over 8,000 people and makes a net contribution to UK balance of trade. Worldwide, over 400 million tones of metal is recycled each year. Virtually all metals can be recycled into high quality new metal. The process varies for different metals, but generally produces metals of equivalent quality. Metal recycling protects the environment and saves energy. Using secondary raw materials means less use of natural resources which would otherwise be needed to make new metal compounds – such as iron ore in steelmaking; nickel in stainless steel; or alumina and bauxite in aluminium smelting. There are also considerable savings in energy, and reduced CO2 emissions, in production methods using recycled materials:

EU figures indicate that using recycled raw materials, including metals, cuts CO2 emissions by some 200 million tones every year. There are also other environmental benefits, for example, using recycled steel to make new steel enables reductions such as: • 86% in air pollution • 40% in water use • 76% in water pollution Answer the following questions in your book: 1. What are the main environmental advantages to using recycled metal?

2. In the future, do you think there will be an

increase or a decrease in the amount of metal recycling? Why? 3. What metals do you recycle at home? What metals don’t you recycle at home? 4. What do you think about the facilities available in your area for the recycling of metals?