If an ancient blacksmith or sword smith could see a modern scrap yard, they would be awestruck at such riches. Throughout history, metal has been valuable and reused as many times as possible. Broken swords or plows would be melted down and given new life as knives or whatever else was needed by the people. Mining was incredibly difficult, relying on human muscle and endurance. Any metal was valuable and reusing metal whenever possible has always been practical and necessary.
At one time, scrap metal must have been mostly found in piles of broken weapons and tools in armories and blacksmith shops. Itinerant merchants would have collected and sold scrap as they traveled the dusty roads from town to town. Nowadays, scrap travels thousands of miles in container ships, rail cars and truck trailers. The small pile of scrap in the back of the blacksmith shop now covers many acres, holding sorted piles of different metals. Metal arrives daily in the backs of pickup trucks as people drop off bags of aluminum cans, broken refrigerators, car parts, old tools, worn-out equipment or unneeded structural steel. Anything made out of metal can, and probably has, ended up in the scrap yard. The modern scrap yard is actually a recycling center, performing a critical service that benefits everyone, directly or indirectly.
Metal also arrives at the recycling center in containers placed at factories, construction sites or anywhere scrap is generated. At the scrap yard in Dodge Center MN, the contents are sorted and held for resale. Eventually, the scrap is sent on its way across the state or across the world to be transformed into something new. Aluminum, for example, is successfully recycled many times. It only takes 5% of the energy to recycle aluminum as is required to make new aluminum.
Watson Recycling is a third generation recycling facility in Minnesota. When they began 20 years ago, they handled paper, plastic and aluminum. Now the Scrap Yard in Dodge Center MN specializes in more valuable metals, including copper, brass, stainless steel and aluminum. Roll-off containers able to hold from 8 to 40 yards of scrap are available to be dropped off wherever customers need them. Their new state of the art facility will be able to accept any type of metal, including scrap cars, as they continue to be stewards of the environment for future generations.
