Overview
Ferrous metals have been recycled for well over a century, as steel does not lose its physical properties during the recycling process. It certainly is economically viable compared to mining iron ore, handling it and preparing it for the smelting process. The energy saving of recycling ferrous scrap is approximately 16% compared to mining and producing steel.
GF United Power operates a number of shears and shredders to recycle various input materials. As copper is an impurity for the steel recycling process, GF United Power has recently added two new shredders specialized to shred electronic wastes (link to investments) with the objective to reduce the copper content and hence improve the quality of the ferrous scrap that is delivered to steel mills.
Stainless steel is also sourced by the GF United Power, as it is fully recyclable. Based upon the input materials, which can be variable in the steel content, it is decided, whether a de-pollution step is needed and which primary and secondary treatment processes will be used.
GF United Power sources a wide variety of ferrous containing metals. Apart from the ELV and WEEE the other ferrous fractions can be mixtures of metal wastes from households, building materials, transport equipment, packaging etc.