What are Heavy Metals?

Posted on July 11, 2018 by gardencity

An official scientific definition of a heavy metal really doesn’t exist. However, most authorities suggest that a heavy metal is one that is dense and usually toxic at low concentrations. There are several kinds of metals found all over the world, and each one plays a vital role in our society.

Continue reading to learn which ones are deemed “heavy”, and how to safely recycle them.

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Heavy Metal Composition

Metalloids are elements whose properties are midway between those of standard metals and solid non-metals. Lighter metals and metalloids are often considered heavy metals, primarily because of their mass, volume, and toxicity levels. This theory is contradicted when considering gold, since gold is non-toxic, but often deemed a heavy metal. In addition to toxicity and density, most heavy metals also retain a higher atomic number and atomic weight. They also tend to have a specific gravity greater than five.

Heavy metals can include a wide range of metals, such as basic metals, metalloids, transition metals, lanthanides (elements in the periodic table ranging from lanthanum to lutetium), and actinides(elements in the periodic table ranging from actinium to lawrencium). Examples of common metals that are toxic and have high density include lead, mercury, and bismuth.

Common Heavy Metals:

⚛ Bismuth
⚛ Cadmium
⚛ Chromium
⚛ Lead
⚛ Mercury

Less Common, But Sometimes Considered Heavy Metals Include:

⚛ Aluminum
⚛ Arsenic
⚛ Beryllium
⚛ Cobalt
⚛ Copper
⚛ Iron
⚛ Manganese
⚛ Zinc

People who consider heavy metals to be those with a density greater than 5 use this list:

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Garden City Iron and Metal 1-888-586-5322

Call Garden City Iron & Metal at 1-888-586-5322 to recycle scrap metal in Central and Southern Indiana. We pay cash on the spot for all metal and metal commodities, including vehicles, car parts, appliances, construction equipment, farming equipment, and much more! Collect all the scrap metal you can, and then sell it to us for the highest profit in town! Request a free estimate or information, today.

Where Can I Collect Scrap Metal?

Posted on April 9, 2018 by gardencity

If you are looking for a new hobby, scrap metal recycling could be a great fit. Not only is it a magnificent initiative that supports environmental preservation, it is a pursuit that can make you a great deal of money. Best of all, it is an activity that anyone, at any age, can do! Make it a family pastime, a student project, a side job for extra cash, or an eco-friendly volunteer program for your local community!

Whatever your reason for recycling scrap metal, the first place to start is learning where to get it and who to sell it to for the most cash. Continue reading to learn some of the best spots to find scrap metal materials.

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Around the House

The first place to look for scrap metal to sell is around your house. There are several household items that contain a gainful amount of recyclable metal in them, including appliances, electronics, motorized equipment, machines, car parts, old cars and trucks, scooters, motorcycles, trailers, tractors, bicycles, hoverboards, power tools, plumbing pipes, fixtures, window frames, and more. Whether broken or operational, they are accepted by scrap metal buyers.

Post-Construction Sites

When construction takes place, whether commercial or residential, there is always a post-construction mess to clean up. General contractors will gladly give you permission to salvage whatever debris and leftover materials you can find. This saves them time cleaning up and discarding it themselves. Just be sure to always ask permission before trespassing onto the premises. Look for leftover sheet metal, beams, piping, bearings, and anything else made of metal.

Hospitals and Clinics

After asking permission, many medical centers will hand over old junk that is being sent to the garbage. Recyclable metal items include wheelchairs, hospital beds, bed pans, walkers, appliances, machines, leftover construction equipment, and more. You can check with hospitals, retirement homes, clinics, rehabilitation centers, and other medical facilities. Simply schedule a meeting with an office administrator so that you can ask permission and explain that you will remove these items for free.

Local Repair Shops

Any business that provides repairs will likely have old junk laying around. And in many cases, they will be more than happy to let you take them off their hands. Repair shops for appliances, cars, electronics, and furniture are great places to check with. Retail stores may also have old steel shelving, shopping carts, metal displays, and other large metal items they no longer need. When you offer to take this stuff away free of charge, it is appealing to business owners. So there is really no harm in asking!

Additional Sources to Consider:

Shooting Ranges » If there are public or private shooting ranges in your area, check with the manager about collecting the discharged brass shells.

Craigslist » You can post an advertisement on Craigslist, or a similar free public website, stating that you will collect junk or scrap metal from anyone who wishes to give it away for free.

Social Media » You can post an announcement on Facebook and/or other social media platforms asking family and friends to donate their old metal junk to you.

Dumpsters » There is no shame in dumpster diving when it is for the good of the environment and your wallet! Always check with business owners and property managers before getting started.

Farms » You can contact local farms and ranches to see if they have any old equipment to give away. They may have old or obsolete tractors, bulldozers, fork lifts, farming equipment, and more.

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Facts About Modern Metal Recycling Technologies

Posted on March 13, 2018 by gardencity

The metal recycling industry has come a long way over the past several decades. The current innovative technologies available for metal identification, mathematics, assessment, and production are fairly new, but proven to be highly effective thus far.

Continue reading to learn some interesting facts about the modern metal recycling technologies most commonly used by scrappers and other industry contemporaries.

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One of the primary purposes of the current metal recycling technologies today is to accurately identify and locate metals within objects. These new advancements allow all us to identify and separate many types of metal, including precious metals, ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, and more. In fact, the separation of ferrous and non-ferrous metals is a chief objective for most metal recycling plants, therefore making it one of the most significant phases in the scrapping process.

Eddy Current Separation

Since ferrous metals contain iron, they are magnetic; which up to this point has been a primary method of metal separation in the recycling industry. When it comes to separating mixed waste streams of recyclable materials, a technology known as the Eddy Current Separation is implemented to pull the iron-clad metals from the rest of the mixed waste pile. Here’s how it works:

First, paper is usually removed. After that, only plastic and metal materials remain. Then, electric currents are transferred across the waste pile, affecting only metal. This electrical current picks up all metal items, even aluminum, and castoffs all plastic and paper materials.

Precious Metal

Precious metals like palladium, platinum, gold, silver, and other valuable metals such as copper and lead, are commonly found in electronics. However, they are not always worth extracting using advanced technology and sophisticated recycling equipment unless there is enough material to remove. The time and cost of extracting such valuable metals does not always fall below the value of what can actually be recovered. If there is not enough material there, it is usually not economically viable to use such innovative methods of metal separation.

Infrared Sensors

Large recycling centers often use infrared sensors and x-ray scanning technologies to sort through metal waste. Metal sensing can take place using various methods, but the three most popular include hydrometallurgy, biotechnology, and pyro-metallurgy. These three metal sensing technologies have been effective for improving metal recovery rates.

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Call Garden City Iron & Metal at 1-888-586-5322 to recycle scrap metal and junk metal commodities in Central and Southern Indiana. We pay cash on the spot for both ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as well as, junk cars, automotive parts, appliances, construction equipment, motorized farming equipment, and much more! Get rid of your junk and make some fast cash at the same time.

Tips for Cleaning Stainless Steel

Posted on October 3, 2017 by gardencity

Stainless steel trends are on the rise, and they’re not just for appliances anymore. Several office and household commodities are being introduced to the market in stainless steel versions. Items like countertops, backsplashes, phone cases, laptops, furniture, jewelry, electronics, and more can be bought in stainless steel. Steel finish, however appealing, is not actually stainless. In fact, one of the downsides to this type of finish is that it retains every single fingerprint that seems to come in contact with it. For this reason, it is helpful to learn some easy methods and techniques for cleaning stainless finishes, and keep your stuff shiny and finger-print free!

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Stainless Steel Cleaning

Stainless steel requires more than a simple wash rag and wipe-down. It requires certain specialized products and cleaning techniques for optimal shine and protection. You won’t get far using dish detergent and water. It is best to purchase a store-bought stainless steel cleaner and polisher. These generally come in kits with the proper brush and polishing tools as well.

Now this may sound tedious, but it’s actually quite simple and only needs to be done once or twice a week. Simply apply the cream solution or polish to the surface, and then scrub in with the included abrasive. Use circular motions and adequate pressure. You are not just wiping imperfections away, you are conditioning and polishing the finish.
Once the polish is wiped in, you will notice a white powdery residue left over. Simply use a dry paper towel to clear this away. Last, use a dry microfiber cloth to wipe the surface down in circular motions, to remove any lasting streaks or marks. And you are done!

Restoring Stainless Finishes

When polishing doesn’t do the trick, or when steel items are past their prime, a professional cleaning company can restore the look of steel finishes with acid chemical treatments. These are called pickling and passivation acid treatments. They are meant to remove any free iron deposits and low chromium layers from the surface, to reveal shiny better-looking metal. This is a very popular service for commercial properties with stainless steel cleaning and restoration needs.

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4 Benefits of Recycling Scrap Metal

Posted on July 7, 2017 by gardencity

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Millions of tons of scrap metal are used and discarded each year. From bottles and cans, to vehicles, electronics, and more, metal is a highly useful commodity that is 100% recyclable. According to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (http://www.isri.org), 150 million tons of scrap metal was recycled in 2008. This rate of metal recycling has remained strong over the years, and we are still recycling millions of tons of scrap metal today!

Continue reading to learn why metal recycling is so valuable to our environment, economy, and more!

❶ Environmental Protection

Recycling scrap metal is good for the environment for many reasons. For example, the mining of new metal ore creates larger amounts of harmful greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to making new products with recycled metal. These emissions cause air pollution to rise in metropolitan areas, and can even influence climate changes overtime. According to the National Institutes of Health, making new products using recycled metal produces 97% less mining waste and uses 40% less water!

❷ Energy Conservation

Scrap metal recycling conserves energy since there is no need to drill, refine, process, and manufacture new ore. Here’s a fun fact: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recycling just one single aluminum soda can saves enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for more than four hours!

❸ Natural Resource Preservation

One of our most precious natural resources on Earth is our natural ore deposits. Unfortunately, there is only a limited amount. By recycling scrap metal, we can reduce the need to mine for new, virgin ore, thus preserving our planet’s natural resources.

❹ Economic Support

The scrap metal recycling industry is not only philanthropic in terms of the environment, it also aids the local economy by providing jobs, promoting cash flow, and allowing for economic gain. According to the National Recycling Coalition, the recycling industry generates virtually $236 billion each year, and employs more than one million workers across America.

Recycle Scrap Metal in Indianapolis

Garden City Iron and Metal 1-888-586-5322

Call Garden City Iron & Metal at 1-888-586-5322 to recycle scrap metal and junk metal commodities in Central and Southern Indiana. We pay cash on the spot for both ferrous and non-ferrous metals, including junk cars, automotive parts, appliances, construction equipment, motorized farming equipment, and more. Call 1-888-586-5322 to request a free estimate for your scrap metal, today.