Zinc Recovery Specialists · UK
Your Scrap Has
Somewhere Better
to Go.
Spent zinc — gutter offcuts, galvanizing dross, die-cast runners — weighed, graded, and returned to the melt cycle before it touches landfill.
Free Scrap Valuation
What's your zinc worth?
Gutter Offcuts Turned Certified Ingot
A Roofing Firm With Nowhere to Send Its Scrap
Fletcher & Sons complete 40–60 residential re-roofing projects per year across West Yorkshire. Each job leaves behind 80–120 kg of zinc gutter offcuts, downpipe sections, and flashing strip. With landfill levies rising to £126/tonne, their skip costs had become a line item the estimator could no longer hide.
Single Collection, Clean Assay, Same-Day Credit
Smelt issued a prepaid collection note for a single flatbed load — 1.4 tonnes of clean sheet/strip offcuts, no pre-sorting required. Material arrived at the yard at 07:30; assay results (99.1% Zn) were transmitted by 11:00. A credit note was issued before lunch.
Scrap Cleared, Landfill Levy Eliminated
Fletcher & Sons received £1,840 in material credit — enough to offset three months of skip hire. The firm now schedules a quarterly Smelt collection as standard, keeping their yard clear and their estimating costs honest.
Dross Accumulation Resolved Without Compliance Risk
18 Months of Dross With No Compliant Route
Midlands Hot-Dip Ltd operate two galvanizing lines processing structural steelwork. Their bottom dross — a zinc-iron intermetallic compound averaging 94% Zn — had been accumulating in IBC containers for 18 months. Their previous recycler had lost its environmental permit; the plant was approaching the threshold requiring a formal waste declaration.
Permitted Carrier, Segregated Furnace Allocation
Smelt holds EA Waste Carrier Licence No. CBDU285431. A specialist vacuum tanker collected 12.4 tonnes of bottom dross across two visits. Material was segregated by iron content into two furnace allocations — high-iron dross routed to the zinc-aluminium alloy stream, low-iron to primary remelt. Full consignment notes and waste transfer documentation issued within 24 hours.
Compliance Restored, 11.6 Tonnes Back in the Melt Cycle
Midlands Hot-Dip received certified waste transfer documentation suitable for their ISO 14001 audit, plus a material credit of £14,200. The plant now operates a 90-day dross removal schedule with Smelt, preventing future accumulation.
Full Die-Cast Line Decommissioned in 11 Days
A Closed Zinc Die-Cast Facility, Mixed Alloy, No Inventory
When Precision Components Ltd ceased die-casting operations, they were left with 47 tonnes of mixed zinc alloy — Zamak 3, Zamak 5, and ACuZinc5 runners intermingled with furnace skull, sprue, and flash. No alloy segregation records existed. The site lease required full clearance in 30 days. The procurement director needed a single contractor who could assay, value, remove, and certify the entire inventory.
On-Site Assay, Alloy Segregation, Six Furnace Streams
Smelt deployed a mobile XRF spectrometer for on-site alloy identification across 312 sample points over two days. Material was segregated into six streams by aluminium and copper content. Three articulated loads moved 47 tonnes to the Sheffield furnace facility over nine days. Each stream was processed separately; secondary ingot was cast to BS EN 12844 specification. Full chain-of-custody documentation provided for the client's auditor.
47 Tonnes Certified, Site Cleared in 11 Days
Precision Components received £61,400 in material credit — partially offsetting the facility's wind-down costs — plus a carbon avoidance certificate confirming 70.5 tonnes CO₂e avoided. The procurement director used the certified ingot specification to negotiate a preferential supply agreement with a die-casting customer before the site lease expired.
Free Resource
The Complete
Case Study Library
All three recovery stories — from residential scrap to full factory decommissioning — compiled into a single PDF with assay results, logistics data, and carbon certificates. Ready to hand to a procurement director.
Smelt Recovery
Case Study Library 2026