Let’s talk about recycled silver

We love Silver! And when it is recycled we love it even more!

But let’s talk about what recycled silver is and how recycling is done!

Although recycling precious metals helps us save resources and reduce the environmental impact of mining, it does not come without cost. An interesting fact is that whereas 80% of gold mined every year is purposed for jewellery industry, only 25% of world’s silver goes into jewellery and silverware. Due to its electrical and thermal conductivity, silver has very broad usage in electronic industry. What’s more, as silver is used for several applications, it is very likely for it to be wasted without realizing its “hidden value”.

Recycled silver is a precious metal from silver already used in tons of electronic products and old jewellery. During the recycling procedure, silver is separated from other metals, it is melted, purified and reused! As part of the recycling procedure, silver is refined and no quality is being lost from the end result.

The main stages of the metal recycling process are as follows:

1. Collection

The collection process for metals differs to that for other materials because of metal higher scrap value. As such, it is more likely to be sold to scrap yards than sent to the landfill.

2. Sorting

Sorting involves separating metals from the mixed scrap metal stream or the mixed multi-material waste stream. In automated recycling operations, magnets and sensors are used to aid in material separation.
At the entrepreneurial level, scrappers may employ a magnet in order ?? to observe the material colour or weight to help determine the metal type. For example, aluminum will be silver and light. Other important colours to look for are copper, yellow (for brass) and red, for red brass. Scrappers will improve the value of their material by segregating clean metal from the dirty material.

3. Processing

To allow further processing, metals are shredded. Shredding is done to promote the melting process as small, shredded metals have a large surface-to-volume ratio.

As a result, metals can be melted using comparatively less energy. Normally, aluminum is converted into small sheets and steel is changed into steel blocks.

4. Melting

Scrap metal is melted in a large furnace. Each metal is taken to a specific furnace designed to melt that particular metal. A considerable amount of energy is used in this step.

Still, as mentioned above, the energy required to melt and recycle metals is much less than the energy that is needed to produce metals using virgin raw materials. Based on the size of the furnace, the degree of heat, and volume of metal, melting can take from just a few minutes to many hours.

5. Purification

Purification is done to ensure that the final product is of high quality and free of contaminants. One of the most common methods used for purification is Electrolysis.

6. Solidifying

After purification, melted metals are carried by the conveyor belt to cool and solidify. In this stage, scrap metals are formed into specific shapes such as bars which can then be easily used for the production of various metal products.

7. Transportation of the Metal Bars

Once the metals are cooled and solidified, they are ready to use. They are then transported to various factories where they are used as raw material for the production of brand-new products.

When the products made of these metal bars come to the end of their useful life, the metal recycling process cycles again.

As most recycling procedures (especially at industrial level), recycling has certainly a positive environmental impact? but it may pose health risks to the associated personnel. The main reasons are:

emissions from the transportation, energy consumption for melting scrap, emissions of hazardous gases during purification e.g. NOx from the use of nitric acid, potential health risks due to handling hazardous substances.

Despite the downsides, recycling of precious metals have an overall positive environmental impact. During mining an incredible amount of energy is used for ore extraction. The separation of precious metals from ore involves the use of highly toxic substances and emissions of greenhouse gases. Also, precious metal mining involves large scale deforestation and in many cases human slavery.

The institute of Scrap Recycling Industries claims that recycling metal (of all types) can reduce approx. 300-500 million tons of harmful emissions that contribute to global warming.

We source our all our recycled silver bullions from Cooksongold UK. You can find details about our recycled silver here.