Do you recycle copper?

You can recycle copper and those who use copper in their manufacturing will thank you for it. Copper is a very expensive metal to mine. It is much cheaper to recycle copper than to mine new copper, which is why some recycling centers will pay you for most of the original price of any copper you donate to them. Tracy Herring, supervisor of the City of Round Rock Environmental Services in Round Rock, Texas comments, "We don't see lot of copper because typically copper has pretty good value to it and most people take that down to a recycle center themselves to get the money."

Some facilities will give you money for your copper, but others will not. The reason for this is that it is only beneficial for a facility to pay people for their copper if they have the capability of extracting it from the item it is contained in. Those that do not have this capability in-house will most likely send it to the nearest facility that does and get paid for it, so you may as well take it there yourself if you would like the money. Herring says, "We use a company called AMP Recycling and I think most people take it down there."

By recycling copper, you are greatly helping to preserve the environment. You lessen the need to mine for new copper, which reduces the amount of time, energy and fossil fuels that are used in the process, and ensures the reserves of available copper in mines are not depleted. Also, during the refining process of copper, toxic gases and dust are emitted into the air, whereas the recycling of copper emits virtually nothing. Recycling copper also keeps it from taking up space in the already very full landfills.

Copper exists in a variety of products such as appliances, computers and cars. Facilities with the proper capabilities would be happy to take such items off your hands when they become unusable to you. You may even be able to have them come pick it up from your home. "We don't take appliances like refrigerator or freezers or anything that has copper in them," says Herring. "The best way to handle those is to trash the body and find someone who is really good about fixing those types of items. I think they charge like a $20 fee and they extract the frames from those items and they pick them up at the curb."

Copper is also used in the construction of many buildings. If you are involved in the demolition of a house or a building, you can take the copper to a facility and have it recycled. It is easier and more profitable to recycle it than to throw it away.

Those in the field say that copper is completely recyclable, no matter how old or new it is. Even small pieces of it can be recycled and reused. Recycling copper is easy and profitable; the environment and your wallet will thank you.