Meet the Metals.
They might look a bit scary…
…but they’re actually very helpful.
Copper is the old-timer of the family.
People started using him 10,000 years ago to make jewellery.
And he’s still used today for lots of stuff, like wires, because copper conducts electricity really well.
This one’s Iron. She’s the most popular metal in the world.
And, like most metals, she starts life in the ground mixed up with rock.
People use big machines to dig iron up, and then heat it in huge ovens, called blast furnaces, which separate the metal from the rock.
Iron is combined with carbon from coal to make steel.
Steel is tough, lasts a long time and is used to make buildings, vehicles, radiators and even knives and forks.
If you want to make something beautiful, like a necklace, you might call on Gold.
Gold is also used in mobile phones to conduct electricity and data.
For something lighter, like a soft drink can, you might use Aluminium.
And if you want to make batteries, Zinc is your go-to guy.
But the Metals do create a few problems.
Mining metal pollutes the local environment, harming plants, animals and even people.
And making metal takes a lot of energy and produces loads of carbon dioxide which contributes to global heating.
Thankfully, metal can be recycled. Over and over again.
So the more empty drinks cans and tins of beans you pop into the recycling…
…the less metal needs to be mined in the future!
Which is just as well, because once we’ve dug it all up, they’ll be none left.
Metal is non-renewable.
Your phones and laptops can be recycled too, at a special recycling plant where the precious metals will be removed and used again.
It still takes energy to separate, re-melt and re-form metal into new objects, but it’s a lot less than the energy needed to mine and make new metal.
Overall, the metals are a very useful bunch.
And we’ve not even met-all of them!
Sorry guys…
The point is, if we want a sustainable future, we should try and use them a bit less, and recycle them…
…a lot more!