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Eco - Environmental Impact

At Quasimodo Metal Works we do everything we can to limit our impact on the environment.

• We recycle 100% of our scrap metal.
• The metal we use all has a high recycled content.
• Our products are extremely well built and should last a lifetime. In the unlikely event that they are destroyed, they are 100% recyclable.
• Much of our equipment is human powered. Everything else runs on electricity.
• We use natural and environmentally friendly products whenever possible. For a solvent we use isopropyl alcohol. We use recycled paper, and recylce it again when we have finished with it.
• We re-use or recycle all of the packaging material we receive.
• We are certified as a Bay Area Green Business through the Alameda County Green Business Program.

Products

For the most part our products aren't terrible for the environment. They have a long useful life and can be recycled at the end of their life. A high percentage of the metal we start with has been recycled. And our production methods are as efficient as we can make them, so waste is minimized.

Metals

Like everything else, metals have good and bad characteristics with respect to the environment. On the plus side, recycling rates are high and metals are almost infinitely reusable. Metals in their solid form generally are not a cause of pollution or a risk to health. Indeed, some metals, such as zinc, are nutrients. On the negative side, mining of metals can be destructive and refining is energy intensive. Below are some facts regarding the environmental impact of the metals we use most often.

Aluminum

• Aluminum has an infinite recyclable life. Aluminum and its alloys are used over and over again.
• The growth of the market for recycled aluminum is due in large measure to economics. Today, it is cheaper, faster and more energy-efficient to recycle aluminum than ever before. For instance, only about five to eight percent of the energy required to produce primary aluminum ingot is needed to produce recycled aluminum ingot. In addition, to achieve a given output of ingot, recycled aluminum requires only about 10 percent of the capital equipment compared with primary aluminum.
• In 1998, aluminum recyclers processed 4.3 million metric tons of scrap and recycled it into 3.4 million metric tons of aluminum, roughly 37 percent of the total U.S. aluminum supply of 104 million metric tons.
  This contribution - a third of total U. S. aluminum supply - becomes even more significant when placed in historical perspective. In 1972, recycled aluminum accounted for 19 percent of the nation's total aluminum supply. Over the next 27 years, production of recycled aluminum rose 242 percent to 3.4 million metric tons. In those same 27 years, total U. S. aluminum metal supply increased just 91 percent.

Copper

• Copper has an infinite recyclable life. Copper, by itself or in any of its alloys, such as brass or bronze, is used over and over again.
• Known worldwide copper resources are estimated at nearly 5.8 trillion pounds of which only about 0.7 trillion pounds (12%) have been mined throughout history. Nearly all of that is still in circulation, because copper’s recycling rate is higher than that of any other engineering metal.
• Each year in the U.S.A., nearly as much copper is recovered from recycled material as is derived from newly mined ore. When you exclude wire production, most of which uses newly refined copper, the amount of copper used by copper and brass mills, ingot makers, foundries, powder plants and other industries shows that nearly three-fourths (72%) comes from recycled copper scrap. Of the copper used in architectural applications, nearly 100% is recycled.
• More then half of this scrap is “new” scrap, such as chips and turnings from screw machine production... the remainder is “old” scrap, such as discarded electric cable, junked automobile radiators or even ancient Egyptian plumbing.
• Copper’s recycling value is so great that premium-grade scrap normally has at least 95% of the value of the primary metal from newly mined ore.
• The U.S. does not depend on foreign copper... we are completely self-sufficient.

Steel, Galvanized Steel, & Stainless Steel

• Steel has an infinite recyclable life.
• The overall recycling rate for steel is approximately 71%. Approximately 98% of steel used in architectural and construction applications is recycled.
• Scrap has become the steel industry's single largest source of raw material because it is economically advantageous to recycle old steel into new steel. In light of this, steelmaking furnaces have been designed to consume steel scrap.
• In the past 50 years, approximately 50 percent of the steel produced in this country has been recycled through the steelmaking process.
• The life of zinc-containing products is variable and can range from 10-15 years for cars or household appliances, to over 100 years for zinc sheet used for roofing. Street lighting columns made of zinc-coated steel can remain in service for 40 years or much longer, and transmission towers for over 70 years. All these products tend to be replaced due to obsolescence, not because the zinc has ceased to protect the underlying steel. For example, zinc coated steel poles placed in the Australian outback a hundred years ago are still in excellent condition.
  The presence of zinc coating on steel does not restrict steel's recyclability and all types of zinc-coated products are recyclable. Zinc coated steel is recycled along with other steel scrap during the steel production process - the zinc volatilizes and is then recovered.

Zinc

• Zinc is a valuable commodity in the marketplace because, unlike many other materials zinc can be recycled again and again and still maintain its physical and chemical properties.
  This means that much of the zinc you use today was first used years ago.
• Over 6.5 million metric tons of zinc slab, oxides, powders and dusts are consumed each year in the Western World, two million of which come from recycled zinc. In the United States, the Bureau of Mines estimates that with enhanced recovery, recycled zinc will account for 40% of total consumption by 2000.
• Zinc, the 27th most common element in the Earth's crust, is fully recyclable. At present, approximately 70% of the zinc produced originates from mined ores and 30% from recycled or secondary zinc. The level of recycling is increasing in step with progress in zinc production technology and zinc recycling technology.
• Today, over 80% of the zinc available for recycling is recycled. Zinc is recycled at all stages of production and use - for example, from scrap that arises during the production of galvanized steel sheet, from scrap generated during manufacturing and installation processes, and from end-of-life products.