Recycling of Copper and the Alloys

Abstract

The refined copper which is produced by the copper smelting plant is manufactured into copper electric wires and copper fabricating products etc. These products are processed into the machinery parts and copper is then used in society through these products. This process is referred to outgoing copper in the copper recycling system.
Copper from old electrical products and machinery parts is recycled to produce electric wires and copper fabricating products etc. This process is referred to as incoming copper in the copper recycling system. A copper recycling system for both outgoing and incoming copper has been in existence in Japan for many years.
In 2005, 1.38 million tons of refined copper and 1.98 million tons of copper electric wires and copper fabricating products etc. were produced in Japan. On the other hand, 1.55 million tons of copper were wasted from the process of manufacturing machinery parts and from other electrical products. 1.42 million tons of copper were collected to be recycled and 0.13 million tons were presumed to be abandoned and buried. The percentage of copper recycled in Japan were 71.6% and 91.6% including the recycling of imported and exported copper, respectively.
As there is no statistics for the waste and collection of copper in Japan and very little information about buried materials, more investigations of this topics including statistics should be required to create awareness of their current recycling level. Otherwise it is very difficult for the concerned parties to make a concrete plan to accelerate copper recycling such as the technical development of easy reuse and the review of the related system. Export of recycled copper to China has been increasing. This matter also needs to be reviewed in relation to Japan's copper resources.