Copper is essential for manufacturing products and delivering services in electrical networks, renewable energies, electric vehicles, electronics and telecommunications. Cable recycling to recover copper is essential and requires the use of innovative technologies that, when applied to copper cable recycling, optimise recovery processes, purity and the value of copper from mixed cable granulate streams.
Cable granulate is a mixture of small particles, between 2 and 12 mm, composed of granulated copper; granulated aluminium, which is present in power and telecommunications cables; and insulation plastics (PVC, PE, PP) from cable sheaths. Copper granulate—the most valuable material in the cable—is a key indicator of a recycling plant’s efficiency.
It is the industrial process by which copper contained in electrical and electronic cables is recovered, after separating it from the plastic or rubber insulation that contains it, in order to reuse it as high-purity raw material. It is undoubtedly one of the key activities of what is now called urban mining and a further step towards the circular economy. In fact, recovering the copper contained in cables guarantees the profitability of the recycling process, and its purity depends on how the material is shredded, separated and cleaned.
The key to achieving the highest metallic purity when recycling cables is to minimise the contamination of copper or aluminium with plastics, metal dust and other metals present in the mixture. Purity depends on how you shred, how you separate and how you clean the material.
Copper represents up to 70–80% of a cable’s value. If the copper granulate is of high purity, it sells at almost the price of primary copper. And every point of purity lost means direct losses for the plant.
The EU considers copper to be one of the critical metals for the energy transition. And cable recycling is one of the most reliable sources of secondary copper. Recovering it with high purity (>99%) makes cable recycling a profitable activity, and it is essential from an environmental point of view. Recycling copper consumes between 85–90% less energy than producing it from ore, reduces CO₂ emissions and avoids the impacts of open-pit mining.
Copper has become a strategic component of the energy transition and the massive energy supply required to develop artificial intelligence. This metal is used to build telecommunications equipment, electrical cables, air conditioning systems in building electrical installations—essential for cooling data centres—or in the manufacture of electric cars. Today, its demand far exceeds the production rate of the mining industry. The main risk of electricity shortage may not be energy, but the metal that allows it to be transported.
Copper cable recycling works as an industrial sequence: first the cable is broken down, then the copper is separated from the plastic or rubber and, finally, the purity is refined through optical sorting.
After reducing the cable to small fragments, to release the metal from the insulation, it is fed into a shredder or granulator. The aim is to break down the cable structure until particles of 2–12 mm are obtained, to achieve an initial mixture of copper and plastic ready for separation.
Materials are separated by density and physical properties. For this purpose, densimetric tables are used, which allow the copper (heavier) to be separated from the plastic. Eddy currents and magnets are applied to remove unwanted metals, until a metallic fraction with a purity of 97–99% is obtained.
Thanks to the use of artificial vision, it is possible to reduce contaminants and improve the final purity of copper. Using NIR and RGB sensors allows the detection of plastic residues or light metals. These impurities are automatically ejected by air valves.
The price of copper cable as scrap influences profitability because plants buy that cable from scrap dealers or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) managers. If the price of scrap cable rises, the raw material is more expensive. To offset that cost, the plant needs to achieve a higher degree of purity and better separation efficiency. Forced to maximise purity and minimise losses, the plant sees how the value of recovered copper changes.
When scrap copper prices are high, only the most innovative plants maintain their margins. In cable wire recycling, separation technology is decisive.
On the other hand, as copper is 70–80% of the cable’s value, when its value rises, the metallic granulate is paid almost at the price of primary copper and the plant obtains more revenue per tonne processed. If the price of copper falls, profitability narrows and purity becomes critical.
If we look at the margin between purchase and sale, the real profitability depends on the spread, that is, the result of subtracting the purchase price of the cable and the recycling process costs from the selling price of copper. If the spread is high, the plant makes money. And if it narrows, only plants with fine sorting and low copper loss remain profitable.
Focusing on process efficiency, when the price of scrap cable is high, every kilogramme of copper lost in poorly separated mixtures or plastic contamination becomes a direct loss. The copper market is experiencing continuous growth, with increasing demand driven by electrification and circular economy initiatives.
In the United States alone, according to consultancy Procurement Resource, scrap copper prices were approximately $13,524.19 per metric tonne in April, compared with $13,518.88 in May, representing a slight increase. Scrap copper covers approximately 35% of EU copper demand and is traded in various quality grades, from high-purity Millberry scrap (bare copper wire >99%) to contaminated mixed copper. Hence, copper cable recycling plants invest in densimetric tables, precision granulators and optical sorting.
In copper wire recycling, even small copper losses result in a significant drop in revenue. As conventional separation processes often leave copper mixed with other metals, which reduces its value and increases reprocessing costs, the ideal is to integrate cutting-edge technologies such as those marketed by Eldan.
The SPS (Small Purpose Sorter) system from Eldan Sorting is the best option for cable granulate treatment. Suitable when precision and purity are priorities (cable granulates and non-ferrous metals), it handles fine granulates from 3 to 20 mm, features belt widths between 600 and 1200 mm; advanced inductive sensors to detect and separate different material granules (copper, brass, lead, grey metals and plastics).
It combines RGB cameras, artificial intelligence for material recognition, deep learning and, optionally, near-infrared (NIR) technology.
If your organisation needs to improve copper cable recycling, we invite you to contact us and/or schedule a meeting.
