Today’s scrap metal will become so much more than tomorrow’s spending money.

Olivia Healey
2026-09-08

Off the coast of southern New Jersey, the blades of a turbine are turning out tomorrow's green energy because someone’s old wires were given a second wind.

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Head further west to Philadelphia and excited fans are shaking the stands of their local stadium – stands that were once a pile of sheet scrap someone was shaking off at a recycling site down the street.

Somewhere in a small town in Lake Charles, LA, a little girl and her suitcase are taking big strides along a station platform, into her grandma’s arms, thanks to copper-scrap-turned-train-parts someone shifted from their site to ours.

Across the world, people just like you are showing up on scrap sites with vans full of offcuts and fittings, old pipe and piles of plastic. Builders with their boots on before sunrise. DIYers whose hands are always in a project - and a fair bit of dirt. Roofers with weather-worn smiles. They all show up to turn scrap metal into money. Pipes to profit. Rust piles to rent paid. Conked-out cars to cash.

But what looks like the end of the road for your materials is just a new direction of travel.

Tomorrow’s products depend on today’s materials.

You could see your old steel again, forming the skyline of your local city. Your steel piping could pop up in products from aerospace to architecture. Your copper could be tomorrow’s hospital equipment or the reason a train route can run. Your aluminum could become the airplane that takes you on your next adventure. Today’s worn-out white goods could be heating your mom’s home by next winter.

Anything from a can to an aircraft carrier can be recycled into anything from a bicycle to a building. Tomorrow’s possibilities depend on making the most of what we have today.

Make the most of what we have before it’s too late.

The pressure on the Earth’s resources is reaching breaking point. Raw materials are becoming rarer, while demand for materials is rising. At the same time, valuable metals are sitting unused – in workshops, factories, vehicles and landfills.

Most of these materials can go around and around the supply chain – on and on – retaining their value and keeping resources in use. But not everything that can be recovered is recovered today. There are still materials that are mixed, contaminated or difficult to-separate, meaning valuable resources can be lost from the circular economy.

At EMR, we call it the last 1%. And our 4,000 colleagues around the world are working to make that 1% smaller – investing in the technology, processes and expertise that can help us recover more from the materials we handle.

Because tomorrow’s products depend on making better use of the materials already in circulation. That means looking beyond what is easy to recycle and finding new ways to keep more valuable materials in use for longer.

Everything must recycle. It’s our vision. It’s our belief. It’s what we stand for.

This isn’t a new beginning. The work we do hasn’t changed. But the importance of the work we do has changed. And our new brand reflects this change in one simple belief: Everything Must Recycle.

We are proud of our heritage and proud of our name because it carries the work of thousands of people over many years. But, while the company will continue to be known as EMR, Everything Must Recycle is our way of expressing who we are, what we believe and the future we're helping create – side by side with you.

So, you might see bold new orange trucks on the roads, a recycled logo across social media and a simplified name on the signs at your local site, but this isn’t about how things look. It’s a statement of intent.

While your intent when you show up on site might be to turn scrap metal into money to spend on your business, bills, beer or big plans – just know that it doesn’t end there.

In fact, it doesn’t end at all.