1. Material Perspective: A "Secondary Treasure Trove" of High-Value Metals
The core recycling value of waste wires and cables lies in the metal conductors wrapped inside, among which copper and aluminum account for the highest proportion, with a recycling rate of over 95%. As a high-quality conductive material, copper has stable market circulation value. After sorting and smelting, each ton of waste copper cables can extract approximately 800-850 kg of pure copper, which reduces costs by over 40% compared to mining primary copper ore. Although aluminum conductors have slightly lower value than copper, they possess the characteristics of light weight and easy processing. After recycling, they can be directly used in the production of new cables or aluminum alloy products, forming a short-term economic cycle of "recycling - processing - reuse" and becoming an important profit growth point in the waste recycling industry.
2. Environmental Perspective: A Key Link in Reducing Pollution and Carbon Emissions
Random disposal or incineration of waste wires and cables causes dual environmental hazards: the plastic outer sheath is difficult to degrade in the natural environment and may release microplastics to pollute soil and water sources; long-term exposure of metal conductors may also trigger the risk of heavy metal leaching. However, standardized recycling processes can effectively avoid these issues — through physical sorting technology, metals and plastics are separated. The plastic outer sheath can be processed into recycled particles for manufacturing pipes and injection-molded parts, and the carbon emissions during metal smelting are only 1/5 of those from primary metal mining and smelting. Taking copper as an example, each ton of recycled copper can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10 tons, which is equivalent to planting more than 500 trees, providing solid support for the "dual-carbon goals".
3. Resource Perspective: An Important Approach to Alleviate the Shortage of Mineral Resources
The global reserves of non-ferrous metal mineral resources such as copper and aluminum are limited, and the difficulty of mining is increasing year by year. As "urban mineral resources", waste wires and cables have the advantages of concentrated resources and low recycling costs. According to statistics, recycling 1 ton of waste cables can save 1.2 tons of copper ore and 0.8 tons of bauxite, reducing the ecological damage caused by mine mining. At the same time, the recycling industry can also drive employment in upstream and downstream sectors such as sorting, smelting and processing, forming a circular economy model with both ecological and economic benefits, and providing important guarantees for the sustainable utilization of resources.
