Much of the metal we use has been used before. You can use metals again and again, by melting them down and making new things from them. This is called recycling. Recycling is very important.
Recycling saves energy.
Taking metal from rocks in the ground is expensive and uses up lots of energy. It creates pollution when the rocks are shipped across the world in trucks and boats. Each year, we use so many aluminium cans that if you stacked them, they could reach to the Moon and back! You can make twenty recycled cans with the same energy needed to make just one new can.
A magnet sorts out different metals.
Machines chew up the old bits of metal in washing machines, cars and cans. The machine squeezes out small clean pieces of metal. A huge magnet separates iron and steel. Each type of metal is melted down and used again.
You can sort out different metals.
Some metals are magnetic. This means they will be pulled towards a magnet. Iron and steel are magnetic. Copper and brass are not. With a small magnet, try to pick up a selection of metal objects. Which ones are magnetic?