The true story
Scrap metal really has a bad rep……. it’s back of house, seen by many as ‘just the scrap’. In fact it is often treated as just another waste stream – like your general waste. So what really is the truth about Scrap Metal…
It strikes us as utterly crazy that an income generating asset is held in the same regard as a waste stream that costs you money – they are two totally different things but because many companies do not treat them differently they are often not receiving the best service or the most accurate prices for their materials.
We often see the scrap shoehorned into a general waste tender for multi national companies – all other waste streams on the tender cost the organisation money and it stands out clear as day that the income generating asset really should not be there.
We regularly service ‘mixed metal’ skips for a range of companies, which we segregate using niton technology – best practice would be to segregate the materials at source – would you mix up any other valuable assets that your company produces in the same way?
The grade of material that you produce is really important – it is astounding that many companies will simply say ‘aluminium’ or ‘stainless steel’ – they won’t know the grade of material. The truth is that every foundry buys your material by grade and it is really important. If you do not know the grade of material and are simply selling stainless steel or aluminium alloy then you will ultimately be paid the lowest price possible for your grade of materials – the reality is that they could be worth a lot more than you think.
The processes involved in recycling your scrap metal are high impact on the environment – it is essential that we as a merchant minimise this impact in every way, this should always be achieved in partnership with our customer so that they are also minimising the impact. The truth is that the customer has a Duty of Care to ensure that the company they partner with has exacting standards and an impeccable environmental record. It is also essential that the customer checks and double checks that their merchant has the appropriate environmental permits.
The truth is that good Health and Safety practices are non negotiable – we need to try and minimise any double handling, loading issues, leakages, contamination etc for our customer – we also need to ensure that we as a merchant always follow best practice and we must be able to evidence this to our customers. The truth is that again, the customer has a Duty of Care to ensure that the company they partner with has exacting standards and an impeccable Health and Safety record.
