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Top Reasons to Recycle Construction and Demolition Debris

Recycling at home is one thing—and we can only hope everyone does it already, keeping aluminum, paper material, and plastics separate from the rest of our everyday garbage. After all, most cities offer convenient recycling pickup services, even for apartment dwellers. And some cities—including Seattle, Pittsburgh, and San Diego—have even made recycling mandatory for both

Our Favorite DIY Recycled Metal Projects

Recycled metals (like the kind you can find at our Austin recycling center) provide interesting and versatile materials for all kinds of DIY projects, from art sculptures to more utilitarian structures like shelving or tables. Whether you’re looking for inspiration for your next art piece or just want some ideas for how to recycle your

Industrial Demolition 101: What to Know About Planning a Demolition Project

While home improvement television shows make demolition projects look fun and easy, the truth is that industrial demolition takes serious planning and time to be completed effectively. Before embarking on a major demolition project, you’ll want to consider all aspects of the project, which we’ve compiled here in our Industrial Demolition 101 guide. Planning Stage

Our Top 4 Pop Culture Scrap Yard References

As a leader in scrap metal recycling for the past 50 years, we here at Gardner Metals are passionate about our business. And while our facility is much cleaner and more organized than the typical overflowing junk yards you see in the movies, we can’t help but have a fondness for those. We were curious

Coolest Metal Sculptures In Austin

Metal recycling isn’t just for car mechanics and junkyard dogs. In fact, some truly impressive works of design, sculpture, and architecture come from the same metal materials that you haul off to your local metal scrap recycler. And here in Austin, where we’re known for our artistic innovation and eco-friendliness, metal is a hot commodity.

What We Buy: Aluminum

Aluminum—the stuff your soda can is made of—is a pretty amazing metal. It comprises about eight percent of Earth’s land mass and is one of the most commonly used nonferrous (not iron-based) metals around. Aluminum is one of the easiest products to recycle, since it can be melted down and fashioned into new products infinitely.

What Exactly Is Scrap Metal?

Your watch, your belt buckle, the components inside the computer or phone you’re using to read this article: metal is all around us, helping us do everything from storing food to driving around town. But when your watch breaks, your belt wears out or you get a new computer, that metal doesn’t go away. Instead,

Electronic Recycling: How Does it Work?

176 pounds: That’s the amount of e waste generated by the average US family every year. Every day, thousands of discarded computers, tablets and other electronics are carted off to fill landfills around the world when they could have been taken to an electronics recycling center. All that computer disposal adds up. At the end

What Not to Put in Your Austin Recycling Bin

You’ve finally trained yourself not to pitch those soda cans in the regular old trash can—but there’s a lot more to recycling than that. In fact, recycling is as much about what you keep out of the bin as what you put in it. Contaminating recycling streams with the wrong materials slows down the process,

Austin Recycling Guide

By now, most of us don’t need to be convinced of recycling’s benefits: converting used materials to new products is pretty much a no-brainer, since it saves valuable resources, reduces landfill waste, and keeps trash out of rivers and oceans. Austin recycling is no different. Luckily, Austinites have a pretty great track record where recycling