Just about all of us feel that recycling is environmentally friendly
. When most people think about recycling, they usually think about a process that starts with taking plastic, chemicals or paper that is discarded and turning it into something that is "new."
One well known example is polywood furniture. Polywood is a material that looks like lumber. It is essentially made up of recycled plastic bottles. However, the furniture that is built from this material has the look of real lumber.
The recycling of metals can be just as environmentally friendly as is the recycling of plastic and paper.
By its very nature the mining and manufacture of metal is environmentally intensive. Toxic fumes and waste that are definitely not kind to our planet are byproducts of both the mining and the manufacturing process.
Our economic reality dictates that although preserving the environment is a very hot topic, business cannot simply shut down - even if it's in the best interest of our planet.
However, there are growing political and social pressures that are influencing companies to live up to their responsibilities and do what they can to better conserve natural resources.
For these reasons recycling our resources is beginning to become a bigger part of the manufacturing process. As a result, the scrap metal trade is in an upswing.
Many people believe that scrap metal recycling should be encouraged because it is relatively good for our environment.
Before it became scrap, the metal that ends up with a scrap metal dealer started out like virtually any other kind of metal. In most instances it was part of a machine that was built for a specific purpose.
But when machines break down or the buildings that they are housed in are demolished the metal becomes scrap. It's often unwanted and the owners just want to get rid of it as expeditiously as possible.
They usually visit a scrap metal dealer and reach an agreement whereby the dealer will purchase different parts of the machinery. The dealer then hauls away the unusable metal and has it melted down. What had previously been scrap is now transformed and is ready for reuse. At that point in time the scrap metal dealer can sell it to someone else.
The more scrap metal that is recycled the less mining and manufacturing of metal needs to be done. Although the process of recycling metal can also be harmful to the environment it is not nearly as bad as mining and manufacturing "virgin" metal.
Since the recycled metal is just as viable as is fresh metal it makes sense to support the process because it is far less taxing on the environment.
After centuries of the mindless depletion of our resources and the associated pollution, we're at the point where we all must exercise more caution in the way we live. That's perhaps one of the reasons that becoming an environmental consultant has become such a very popular and well paid profession.