Metals Group - Industry Overview

The Metals Industry, by definition, is not a homogenous group. It does offer, however, a diverse range of companies producing a huge array of products. Common sense mitigates against the selection of an industry sector within a sector, for example, Materials Handling or Whitegoods, as these sectors utilise very similar technologies and processes.

In turn this produces definite types of waste, no matter what the end product may be. Common technologies, therefore, tend to yield the following forms of waste:

• Hazardous chemical disposal including oil and its by-products
• De-greasing plant
• Paint Lines and resultant waste material
• Metal Processing and disposal of scrap material
• Metal Treatment such as galvanising, annealing.
• Water Treatment and/or re-circulation
• Air Filtration
• General energy waste-electricity, gas, compressed air.
• Packaging Waste.
• Product "Life Cycle Management" eg. disposal of 'dead refridgerators'.

With one or two exceptions, the target group of Metals companies would deal daily with above issues. The prospect of a project such as Waste Minimisation as having broad appeal and significance for the Metals Industry is very high.