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![FUTURE TRENDS – RECYCLING – ELECTRICAL WIRE
Page 2 of 6
Ever since the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 prohibited the burning or
incineration of wire and cable that surrounds it, recyclers and technology have been devising and
improving separation systems to replace that method.
The wire processing sector that has developed in the subsequent decades has been sometimes
lucrative and sometimes challenging for nonferrous recyclers who have invested in wire chopping
technology.
By the time wire and cable is processed by operators who specialize in the practice, the end
consumers of the product have come to expect a clean secondary commodity that would not be
recognizable to the outside observer as scrap metal.
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), Washington, has several grades of
chopped wire listed in its “2014 Scrap Specifications Circular,” including:
Clove – No. 1 copper wire nodules consisting of “bare, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire scrap
nodules, chopped or shredded, free of tin, lead, zinc, aluminum, iron, other metallic impurities,
insulation and other foreign contamination” with a minimum copper content of 99 percent.
Cobra – No. 2 copper wire nodules consisting of “unalloyed copper wire scrap nodules, chopped
or shredded” with a minimum 97-percent-copper content.
Cocoa – Copper wire nodules of unalloyed chopped or shredded material with a minimum 99-
percent-copper content.
Tall – Electrical conductor aluminum nodules of “clean chopped or shredded [material] free of
insulation and nonmetallic items.” The grade must contain at least 99.45-percent-aluminum
content.
Considering how wire and cable can enter a wire processing facility—potentially baled and
possibly mixed—these seemingly difficult standards are nonetheless met and exceeded each day
by wire and cable processors…
The standards are exceeded by the processors who are in it for the long haul. The fly-by-night-get
rich-quick types quickly fall out of the recycling race. That is going to be even more the case in the
future because technology, and the capital required to invest in it, will separate the short-termers
from the survivors.
Nonetheless, operators of wire chopping lines say they are keeping their eyes and ears open for
new and improved technology on the market. “There is always a better way or improvements with
the current technology as necessity and inventive minds evolve,” says Melvin Lipsitz of M. Lipsitz
& Co., Waco, Texas…
Jeffrey Mallin of Mallin Bros. Co. Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, says the sorting or preprocessing of
insulated copper wire (ICW) in particular still lends itself to further improvements.
“U.S. dealers today don’t send a totally clean ICW package that choppers can make No. 1 copper
out of,” says Mallin. “There are brass fittings, wire nuts and tinned wire included in the loads,
which makes it very, very difficult to create a good clean bare chop.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/futuretrends-recycling-electricalwire-170307194659/85/Future-Trends-Recycling-Electrical-Wire-2-320.jpg)
![FUTURE TRENDS – RECYCLING – ELECTRICAL WIRE
Page 3 of 6
Whether improving sorting methods on the chopping line or in advance of it, Mallin says he
is not yet convinced he has found the next investment to make. “I have seen the optical sorters—
i.e., color separation—which might be a good next step for copper and aluminum separation, but
the technology or machinery I saw in production was not efficient, and the finished product was
not refined or pure in any form,” he comments.
Steven Safran of Safran Metals in Chicago, who like Mallin has been processing wire and cable
for more than three decades, says he continues to believe the best way to produce a pure metal
chop is by being selective with the material introduced into the chopping line.
One of the technological advances that would provide a boost to wire processors does not involve
metals recovery but rather creating end markets for the plastic jackets and coatings of wire and
cable.
There have been and still are some smaller volume end markets for the material, but for chopping
lines “that render cross-linked polyethylene, [there] has been no real good recycling home” for the
material, says Lipsitz.
Some makers of plastic composite products, such as IntegriCo (http://integrico.com) of Temple,
Texas, have expressed an interest in accepting clean, processed wire and cable jackets for use in
their products. (IntegriCo specializes in manufacturing railroad crossties.)
Safran says his company occasionally finds an end market that will accept some of the shredded
jacket material at no charge (rather than Safran Metals having to pay to dispose of it), but a long-
term solution remains elusive. “For someone who can really develop that market, I think there is a
multimillion-dollar market there for the recycled plastics,” he comments.
From Recycling Today, “Charged for Separation”, Dr. Rainer Kohnlechner, July 7, 2015:
As the science of cable recycling has advanced and the volume of cable scrap recycled has
increased, new processing technology to yield increased recovery can pay dividends. Therefore, it
is not surprising that recyclers of this material increasingly are attempting to recover virtually 100
percent of the valuable copper, including what is left behind in the plastic insulation.
It is possible to recover residual copper from insulation in a dry process using electrostatic
separators, such as the Hamos KWS electrostatic separator.
After granulation, copper and plastic are separated by gravity using setting tables. The setting
tables are adjusted to produce copper that is as much as 100 percent pure. This is especially
important because even the smallest impurities in the copper fraction lead to significant revenue
reduction. Copper smelter pay the highest prices for No. 1 copper, so the aim is to produce copper
of maximum purity.
For technical reasons, however, it is difficult to produce copper with 100 percent purity while also
producing a “copper-free” plastic fraction using a gravity separation table. Particularly
when processing mixed cables (namely cables containing course and fine wires and strands) or
thin telephone cables, are cycler can expect to lose a small amount of fine copper wire](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/futuretrends-recycling-electricalwire-170307194659/85/Future-Trends-Recycling-Electrical-Wire-3-320.jpg)
Uploaded byBruce LaCour
Future Trends - Recycling - Electrical Wire
Electrical wire recycling has been tied to China's demand for copper and infrastructure growth over the past decade. However, China's economic slowdown has reduced its copper scrap imports in recent years, slowing wire recycling in North America. Improved sorting technologies may help recyclers recover more copper and increase purity levels. Developing end markets for recycled plastic wire insulation could also boost the industry, but a long-term solution remains elusive. The future prospects for wire recycling depend on technology advances, capital investment, and innovative uses for recycled materials.
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Future Trends - Recycling - Electrical Wire
- 1. FUTURE TRENDS –RECYCLING – ELECTRICAL WIRE Page 1 of 6 From Recycling Today, “Alternating Currents”, Brian Taylor, October 2015: The scrap wire that makes its way into a North American wire chopping facility comes from various sources, including several links in the scrap dealer and wholesale chain. What much of this scrap has in common, however, is that it became obsolete as a result of construction, demolition, or renovation projects in the U.S. or Canada. Investments in expanding and upgrading the grid can be one source, particularly for thicker gauge aluminum electrical cable. Buildings being demolished can serve as another source, provided scavengers have not previously illicitly stripped the building of its wiring. Construction, renovation and remodeling also generate wire cable and scrap, which means a direct correlation between the building sector’s health and the level of activity at wire chopping plants. In the 21st century, wire chopping activity has been tied to the degree of competition from buyers based in China. As China’s infrastructure and hunger for copper ramped up, many forms of wire and cable scrap became almost exclusively earmarked for shipment to China. So China has been the driving force behind electrical wire recycling in the past ten years, and has been the reason for the slowdown since late 2014. See Figure 1, “North American Wire Choppers”. Again from “Alternating Currents”: “Business is not that good, so we haven’t added any other locations to chop wire or do anything else, for that matter,” states one recycler based in the western U.S. A recycler in Canada says, “Our chopper is currently down at the present time and hopefully will be running sometime next year.” The cooling off of China’s economy and the reduced price for primary nonferrous metals has put a dent in that nation’s demand for nonferrous scrap. A presentation by Carlos Risapatron, director of the Lisbon, Portugal-based International Copper Study Group (ICSG) at a Metal Bulletin conference in May 2015, characterized some of the recent changes, as reported by Reuters columnist Andy Horne, the ICSG director said copper product fabricators in China have taken advantage of widely available primary copper and have upgraded their manufacturing systems to use these primary materials. Largely owing to these circumstances, the ICSG estimates China’s red metals fabricators consumed just 550,000 metric tons of imported copper scrap in 2014, down from 1.2 million metric tons in 2012. The slowdown hasn’t stopped so the near term prospects for electrical wire recycling don’t look good, but that will change in a big way within five years. The long term prospects for recycling many things will increase significantly in the future. The recyclers with the least costly operations and a long-term view of the business will excel. From Recycling Today, “Room for Improvement”, Brian Taylor, October 1, 2014:
- 2. FUTURE TRENDS –RECYCLING – ELECTRICAL WIRE Page 2 of 6 Ever since the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 prohibited the burning or incineration of wire and cable that surrounds it, recyclers and technology have been devising and improving separation systems to replace that method. The wire processing sector that has developed in the subsequent decades has been sometimes lucrative and sometimes challenging for nonferrous recyclers who have invested in wire chopping technology. By the time wire and cable is processed by operators who specialize in the practice, the end consumers of the product have come to expect a clean secondary commodity that would not be recognizable to the outside observer as scrap metal. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), Washington, has several grades of chopped wire listed in its “2014 Scrap Specifications Circular,” including: Clove – No. 1 copper wire nodules consisting of “bare, uncoated, unalloyed copper wire scrap nodules, chopped or shredded, free of tin, lead, zinc, aluminum, iron, other metallic impurities, insulation and other foreign contamination” with a minimum copper content of 99 percent. Cobra – No. 2 copper wire nodules consisting of “unalloyed copper wire scrap nodules, chopped or shredded” with a minimum 97-percent-copper content. Cocoa – Copper wire nodules of unalloyed chopped or shredded material with a minimum 99- percent-copper content. Tall – Electrical conductor aluminum nodules of “clean chopped or shredded [material] free of insulation and nonmetallic items.” The grade must contain at least 99.45-percent-aluminum content. Considering how wire and cable can enter a wire processing facility—potentially baled and possibly mixed—these seemingly difficult standards are nonetheless met and exceeded each day by wire and cable processors… The standards are exceeded by the processors who are in it for the long haul. The fly-by-night-get rich-quick types quickly fall out of the recycling race. That is going to be even more the case in the future because technology, and the capital required to invest in it, will separate the short-termers from the survivors. Nonetheless, operators of wire chopping lines say they are keeping their eyes and ears open for new and improved technology on the market. “There is always a better way or improvements with the current technology as necessity and inventive minds evolve,” says Melvin Lipsitz of M. Lipsitz & Co., Waco, Texas… Jeffrey Mallin of Mallin Bros. Co. Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, says the sorting or preprocessing of insulated copper wire (ICW) in particular still lends itself to further improvements. “U.S. dealers today don’t send a totally clean ICW package that choppers can make No. 1 copper out of,” says Mallin. “There are brass fittings, wire nuts and tinned wire included in the loads, which makes it very, very difficult to create a good clean bare chop.”
- 3. FUTURE TRENDS –RECYCLING – ELECTRICAL WIRE Page 3 of 6 Whether improving sorting methods on the chopping line or in advance of it, Mallin says he is not yet convinced he has found the next investment to make. “I have seen the optical sorters— i.e., color separation—which might be a good next step for copper and aluminum separation, but the technology or machinery I saw in production was not efficient, and the finished product was not refined or pure in any form,” he comments. Steven Safran of Safran Metals in Chicago, who like Mallin has been processing wire and cable for more than three decades, says he continues to believe the best way to produce a pure metal chop is by being selective with the material introduced into the chopping line. One of the technological advances that would provide a boost to wire processors does not involve metals recovery but rather creating end markets for the plastic jackets and coatings of wire and cable. There have been and still are some smaller volume end markets for the material, but for chopping lines “that render cross-linked polyethylene, [there] has been no real good recycling home” for the material, says Lipsitz. Some makers of plastic composite products, such as IntegriCo (http://integrico.com) of Temple, Texas, have expressed an interest in accepting clean, processed wire and cable jackets for use in their products. (IntegriCo specializes in manufacturing railroad crossties.) Safran says his company occasionally finds an end market that will accept some of the shredded jacket material at no charge (rather than Safran Metals having to pay to dispose of it), but a long- term solution remains elusive. “For someone who can really develop that market, I think there is a multimillion-dollar market there for the recycled plastics,” he comments. From Recycling Today, “Charged for Separation”, Dr. Rainer Kohnlechner, July 7, 2015: As the science of cable recycling has advanced and the volume of cable scrap recycled has increased, new processing technology to yield increased recovery can pay dividends. Therefore, it is not surprising that recyclers of this material increasingly are attempting to recover virtually 100 percent of the valuable copper, including what is left behind in the plastic insulation. It is possible to recover residual copper from insulation in a dry process using electrostatic separators, such as the Hamos KWS electrostatic separator. After granulation, copper and plastic are separated by gravity using setting tables. The setting tables are adjusted to produce copper that is as much as 100 percent pure. This is especially important because even the smallest impurities in the copper fraction lead to significant revenue reduction. Copper smelter pay the highest prices for No. 1 copper, so the aim is to produce copper of maximum purity. For technical reasons, however, it is difficult to produce copper with 100 percent purity while also producing a “copper-free” plastic fraction using a gravity separation table. Particularly when processing mixed cables (namely cables containing course and fine wires and strands) or thin telephone cables, are cycler can expect to lose a small amount of fine copper wire
- 4. FUTURE TRENDS –RECYCLING – ELECTRICAL WIRE Page 4 of 6 and dust to the insulation. Typical copper losses can—depending on cable type—range from 2 percent to 12 percent, a proportion that implies significant financial losses as processing volumes increase. Dry electrostatic separators can provide economical separation of even the smallest and finest residual copper particles from cable scrap. The copper yield from cable recycling plants, therefore, can be increased with the aid of electrostatic separation technology. Because of its dry operation, recovery of nearly all residual metals, high operational efficiency and, in particular, the rapid amortization of such electrostatic separators for metal separation, the technology can serve as a complement to modern cable scrap processing plants. Should the cable’s plastic insulation not be disposed of but made into a product, electrostatic separation technology can be applied in this area as well. Part of the future of recycling will be innovative efforts to use the recycled materials. The trash- throw-away society has to make the transition from the Age of Growth into the Age of Survival before that happens to any great extent. The younger generations will lead the way once they realize the past cannot be revived. Recycling electrical wire may not be a multi-million dollar market in the future, but it will be a living!
- 5. FUTURE TRENDS –RECYCLING – ELECTRICAL WIRE Page 5 of 6 Investment City Company Alabama PellCity Trans-Cycle Industries Inc. California Huntington Beach CopperRecovery SanJose SimsMetalManagement Colorado Denver AtlasMetalandIronCorp. Meriden CableManagementLLC Willimantic Prime MaterialsRecovery Inc. Florida Fort Myers GardenStreetIronandMetal Jacksonville CommercialMetalsCo. Georgia Atlanta SchnitzerSteelSoutheast McDonough FortuneMetalGeorgiaLLC Norcross NewellRecyclingSoutheast Illinois Chicago MidwestIndustrialMetalsCo. Chicago SafranMetalCo. Chicago Tri-StateMetalCo. Chicago UniversalScrapMetalsInc. Cicero UnitedScrapMetal Inc. Eldorado Eldorado Enterprises & Recycle Elk Grove Village G&MMetalInc. Indiana FortWayne OmniSourceCorp.– GranulatorDivision Indianapolis J. Solotken&Co. Jonesboro ExeonProcessorsLLC Nabb VersatileProcessingGroup Waterloo MetalXLLC Iowa Spencer ShineBros.Inc. Louisiana Hammond SouthernRecyclingLLC(EMRGroup) Maryland Rosedale IntegrityRecycling Massachusetts Holden Salitsky Alloy Inc. Mississippi Jackson MetalProcessorsInc. (JacksonIron&MetalCo.) Missouri KansasCity MallinBros.Co. St.Louis Metal Recovery Systems New Jersey Howell Emil A. SchrothInc. NewYork Canastota Prime MaterialsRecovery Inc. Lancaster Manitoba Corp.
- 6. FUTURE TRENDS –RECYCLING – ELECTRICAL WIRE Page 6 of 6 State City Company NewYork Medford Gershow Recycling Owego UpstateShredding North Carolina Charlotte SouthernMetalsCo.Inc. Roxboro WesbellTechnologies Ohio East Liverpool SixRecyclingCorp. Zanesville MuskingumIron& MetalCo. Pennsylvania Philadelphia NortheastMetalTradersInc. Philadelphia Pasco Inc. Pittsburgh TubeCityInc. RhodeIsland Lincoln FortuneMetalInc.ofRhodeIsland SouthCarolina Charleston CharlestonSteel & MetalCo. Duncan EdM.SiskInc. Orangeburg Prime MaterialsRecovery Inc. Spartanburg OmniSourceCorp. Tennessee Jackson HutchersonMetalsInc. Texas Dallas Commerical Metals ElPaso W. Silver Recycling McKinney Encore Wire Ltd. Waco M.Lipsitz&Co. Utah Salt Lake City UtahMetal Works Virginia Richmond StrattonMetals Washington Tacoma SimonMetalsLLC Wisconsin Stevens Point CopperConnectionInc. CANADA Alberta Edmonton General Recycling Industries Edmonton Mapleleaf Metals Industries Ontario Barrie GlobalElectricElectronicProcessing (GEEP) Brampton TripleMMetal Mississauga PeelScrapMetal RecyclingLtd. (idleasoflate2015) NorthYork IngotMetalCo.Ltd. Toronto Super Metal Recycling& Equipment Inc. Quebec Montreal American Iron & Metal FIGURE 1 NORTH AMERICAN ELECTRICAL WIRE CHOPPERS