Disposal of small propane canister question.

At a local steel plant, they recycle vehicles for scrap metal. The car is hoisted to a hopper about four stories high. The vehicle is ground down into shreds, the foam and plastics entering one waste stream, the non-magnetic metals into another, and the magnetic steel bits carted to hopper rail cars where it is stored for the blast furnace.

Most steel recycling is similar, it is just scale that differs. Most waste haulers fear these small propane cylinders as they can and do get crushed while hauling. Some start fires within the load and that is a big problem.

Most recyclables here in the US is loaded on a return ship to China and returned as products at a later date. China recently stated they will reduce how much recyclables they will receive because their economy is allowing them to create their own. They don't even want our trash anymore.

Like mowermech we have a small 1 gallon refillable cylinder, adapter T and hoses. Much better solution than little green bottles.

Atlee wrote:
The haven't answered, because they have no idea.

Most folks who religiously recycle, have no idea what happens to the stuff they recycle. They just know to put stuff in either Box A,
Box B, or Box c, and that's the end of it.

obgraham wrote:
But nobody has answered my question: what actually happens to the propane canister when it goes into a specific recycle bin, or when it is picked out of the usual recycle line?

Steel recycling process is pretty straight forward. On a sort line, the plastic base and plastic caps are removed, and the steel canister is tossed on a conveyor that takes it to a compactor, or to a pile that is feed to a compactor. The compactor then crushes the canister, and other steel to be recycled in a bale (A large square bundle of steel) The compactors are able to exert hundreds of tons of pressure to do this, they do not care in any propane may remain in the canister, they simply flatten them.

The bales are then sold to a steel mill, who will melt then down in a furnace, along with fresh iron ore, and other trance elements to make 'new' steel, that is then cast into ingots, bars or sheets, and sold to manufacturers.

The haven't answered, because they have no idea.

Most folks who religiously recycle, have no idea what happens to the stuff they recycle. They just know to put stuff in either Box A,
Box B, or Box c, and that's the end of it.

obgraham wrote:
But nobody has answered my question: what actually happens to the propane canister when it goes into a specific recycle bin, or when it is picked out of the usual recycle line?

But nobody has answered my question: what actually happens to the propane canister when it goes into a specific recycle bin, or when it is picked out of the usual recycle line?

Well, I'm here in Boulder Beach NRA campground and there was one propane bottle sitting on the ground next to the dumpster. Now there are two propane bottles. I couldn't make myself throw it into the trash.

owenssailor wrote:
In our small town in Ontario Canada about the only thing that goes to landfill (garbage) is household waste. Wine,beer and liquor bottles are recycled. Metal and plastics are all recycled as are paper, cardboard and styrofoam products.

We find it very difficult when we travel in the US to be in so many places including state parks where all items just go into garbage.

It is like going back 50 years in how the piles of waste we humans create is handled.

Yup. We are 30 to 50 years behind in everything.


I never realized until now that this was such a big deal. I don't use many of them but, I will be more careful of what I do with them after they are empty.

On the ground next to the dumpster, I let the management make the decision where they should end up. Above my pay grade.

My Lego Robotic Team did a significant presentation project on this very topic.

LP bottles of any size should never enter the WASTE system nor RECYCLING system.

There are special drop off areas in every state but they are rarely advertised and often require a special trip.

[COLOR=]If there are questions, READ THE BOTTLE...and CALL THE NUMBER.


You may not think those little camping bottles (and typical Mapp/Propane tall bottles) would cause much harm. And you would be dead wrong. In Milwaukee we have 2 very large automatic recycling systems/locations that when these get thru visual inspection they have caused explosions and multiple fires.

http://dnr.wi.gov/files/PDF/pubs/wa/WA1575.pdf


This (methods to empty bottles) was not found to be acceptable to those operating the automated machines in WI but admitted it might reduce explosions.

http://www.srmtenv.org/web_docs/swm/Green-Key.pdf


For the automatic machines, this belt is the last manual inspection of material before all enters the machine. Workers stand along here all day picking out hazards, of which signs hang all around to help ID what to pick out.