As scrap carbide prices continue to increase it should come as no surprise that more and more companies are going into the metal recycling business. From tungsten carbide recycling to the process of figuring out the best ways to make sure that the world continues to find the best ways to recycle valuable materials, more and more companies work to find these products from both small and large manufacturing plants.
Tungsten was fist discovered in 1781. And while that discovery occurred nearly 236 years ago, this now commonly used metal was not applied to industrial use for another 150 years. Because tungsten only appears naturally when combined in four major mineral forms with calcium, manganese, or iron this continues to be a resource that many industries are continuing to find uses for.
The Tungsten Carbide Recycling Industry Continues to Grow

A growing number of companies are getting into the business of buying hard scrap such as inserts, compacts, and drills, as well as buying tungsten carbide soft scrap, including sludge and swarf. When everything that these companies buy is used, these companies are constantly looking for new sources for the materials that they want to purchase. The business of sorting and recycling the material based on customers specifications, these companies are able to take what is no longer of use to some companies and be part of the process that turns them into valuable products for other companies.
Consider some of these other facts about the importance of scrap carbide prices and the recycling process in the nation’s manufacturing process, as well as the economy:

• Halfway between lead and gold, tungsten carbide is about twice the stiffness of steel and double the density.
• Composite materials are defined as those that are made of two or more materials that have different chemical compositions.
• Falling behind diamonds, which have an hardness of 10, tungsten carbide falls between 8.5 and 9 Moh’s hardness scale.
• Used for a variety of different applications, tungsten carbide comes in over a dozen different grades.
• 66% of all tungsten available for scrap was either used in the U.S. or exported for recycling.

Finding a way to recycle materials that might otherwise go into landfills or junk yards is an important part of the business that many companies run.