Frankly I’d rather the GOP became enthralled with asteroid mining so we’d finally get some decent space funding, but recycling is the next best thing. Steel is one of the most recycled materials around now anyway.
The age of industry is the age of steel. Steel provides the support for modern buildings, the bodies of modern cars and even the stylings of modern appliances. Iron is the primary constituent of steel, and records of its extraction and employment reach back more than 100 years.
By combining this data with information on the metal’s return as scrap or waste, Daniel Müller of Yale University and his colleagues derived the first estimates of the total stock of iron in use and elsewhere in the U.S. “Over the last century, there has been a lot of mining activity; metals have been put into society,” he explains. “Where are they now?”
Recycling isn’t even that hard, the stuff is just lying around. I predict that in the future we’ll mine old landfills.
Yes, almost all ferrous waste is recycled already, as any metal buyer will tell you – and with all the problems associated with that. Since the Bikini nuke tests contaminated every opencast iron ore mines in the world with fallout, there has been a roaring trade in sunken WW1 battleship iron, especially steel canons, for radiation sensitive steel equipment. That includes anything in nuclear physics labs and in many medical labs. Those old canons were made before the tests, and their steel is sought after for it’s radio-cleanliness.
Around these parts they have started putting the air conditioners on the roofs because people will steal em otherwise.
Down here in Texas recycling seems to evade most people. I mean, how hard is it to put trash in one bin and recyclables in the other?
#1. Interesting comment on the price of copper. $1 a pound ?!?
I worked for a telecom company way back when and we sold copper for .32 a pound. Paid for many a cut-over party after the installation.
There’s gotten to be a small industry of iron-steel-aluminum recyclers in and around my area and it may even help clean up many of the old agri-based land fills that seem to be common in farm and ranch states. Hope so.
1 unlike the paper and glass recycling industry, ferrous and non-ferrous is worth *alot*.
I hadn’t realised that until I moved to Portland, OR – home of Schnitzer Steel.
http://www.schnitzersteel.com/
Downtown has the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, aka “The Schnitz”. 🙂
2 Since the Bikini nuke tests contaminated every opencast iron ore mines in the world with fallout, there has been a roaring trade in sunken WW1 battleship iron, especially steel canons, for radiation sensitive steel equipment.
Amazing. I’ve never heard that mentioned before.
Reminds me of how unreal it sounded when I first read that the lack of old-growth timber available to loggers has lead to a hot market in old logs salvaged from the bottoms of lakes and rivers.
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=7057
The timber doesn’t rot because there is so little oxygen in deep water, he said. In some cases, the sap gets replaced with minerals in water, making it harder, and ultimately better for making fine instruments and furniture.
“…contaminated every opencast iron ore mines in the world with fallout…”
#6 – since thats bad pr for the us govt, im not particularly suprised that it hasnt been mentioned – it was the cold war after all…
#2, Old ship steel is also in demand since radioactivity in steel can result in computer errors, or so I was told by my comp sci professor 20 years ago.
So Dave –
Is everything that goes wrong the fault of the GOP?
-Jim
Our non-profit thought that we could do something in the recycling of old electronic equipment. What we found out was that recycling is a lot like the Wall Street commodities market; what’s the price on aluminum RIGHT NOW, not yesterday. What’s a P4 processor worth RIGHT NOW, not tomorrow. And as darusgrey (#8) said, the shipping can mean the difference between a profit and a loss on a particular load. There’s money to be made in recycling, but it’s not something to be approached casually.
#2, I call bullcrap on this one.
Simply because if there was sufficient radiation falling on the open pit mines, that layer would have been mined decades ago.
Second, the same amount of radiation (fallout) would have also landed on all of us, causing many more immediate problems.
Third, that radiation would have effected vegetation even more so and I haven’t heard anything about radioactive tongue depressors being an issue.
Fourth, any radiation in the iron would largely be removed through the refining and diluted with virgin ore / recycled scrap.
And fifth, old ships are just cheap lots of iron. If they are easily accessible, then they can bring a good salvage, but if they are inaccessible (like the Bismark and Titanic) then they are just some rusty hulks on the bottom of the ocean. There is nothing special about the steel they used other then it doesn’t make the grade for today’s quality and purity.
#1, the money being made on recycling, especially metals, are by the recycling depots. The collectors seldom make much. While occasionally they make a lucky find, such as the 10 lbs of copper, most of their effort goes into small lots of low cost iron and steel. Every scrapper I’ve ever known leads a hand to mouth existence or close to it.
#10, Jim
Yes, when they don’t do something they should be doing.
The conservative mantra about smaller government is just a smokescreen for getting the government out of what stops them from making as much money as they can with total disregard for any consequences to the aftermath.
A democratic government is the collective will of the people. Together we join for the common good of all. This means together we form an army, build roads, dredge harbors, fight fires, battle epidemics, and help care for those who need help. When a danger to society comes along then it is the government’s responsibility to mitigate that danger to the benefit of all society.
So when the Republicans continue to benefit themselves and their close friends at the expense of society and ignore the true dangers facing us then yes, it is their fault.
#10 — you left out “Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton!”
We need easy audio on this site; so, we can hear that distinctive neocon whine.
Huh? I thought the Iron Age started during the Hittite Kingdom about 1500BC?!
“Iron is the primary constituent of steel, and records of its extraction and employment reach back more than 100 years.”
As steel cannot be extracted, the “its” in the above sentence must be iron! Probably one of these damn editors that deleted a “0”
😉
Fabrizio
15As steel cannot be extracted, the “its” in the above sentence must be iron! Probably one of these damn editors that deleted a “0″
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when I read that.
Back in 1994, I remember several members of the Compu$erve space group telling the rest of us that soon to be Speaker Newt Gingrich would have the USA back on the moon by 2004. Missed it by this much…..
Recycling could provide all our needed iron? That only makes sense if the amount being used each year is small. Smaller than the amount being thrown away, or very small compared to the amount already out there. The amount being used probably increases exponentially.
Well, as the study points out, massive amounts of iron have been pulled out of the Earth in the last couple hundred years. I also don’t think it will provide all the iron we need into perpetuity, but we’d need to mine significantly less if we just used what already exists. Besides, metal is 100% recyclable. Add to that the fact that we use less metal in our products than were used in the past and it adds up.