We do not require term agreements. We subscribe to the idea that you should use us because you want to – not because you’re required to.

Working directly with the recycler offers comprehensive access to an EPA-permitted facility fully authorized to process the specific types of metal that come from a crematory. Recycling companies that use third party refiners cannot verify their EPA permits or compliance with ISO standards and can’t offer the same efficiency, safety, environmental responsibility, and most of all, credibility. Dealing with a company like this could cause regulatory problems later.

The most common method of reimbursement is having payment made directly back to the customer. We can also forward your compensation directly to a charity of your choice. Many of our customers like to keep it in the funeral profession family, and we recommend two great philanthropic foundations – NFDA’s Funeral Service Foundation and the ICCFA’s Educational Foundation.

You are always welcome to call on our customers ahead of time to get a feel for how we operate. You will find a list here, and if you would like more, contact us and we will happily provide them. Many can even describe their personal experience visiting our facility and witnessing their metals being recycled.

This is a real concern in the industry, and we realize not all of our customers can come to our facility to view the process. That’s why we always offer to send a sample from the actual melt. This can be analyzed by a third-party assayer to double-check our results. This gives you peace of mind so that customers don’t have to wonder if we are reporting an accurate breakdown.

Absolutely – in fact, we encourage it! We feel that a customer that has been educated on this process has more confidence and trust which makes for a more seamless transaction. Not only can you watch the melt, we will show you every step of the process before and after, including an XRF analysis (X-Ray Florescence) of your metal to get a very close compositional breakdown. This test is done to give our customers an instant idea of what their metal contains. Please contact us to set up a time to visit.

No, we sort the metals after we receive them and recycle them according to their composition. Non-precious high temperature metals or refractory metals are smelted individually. Precious metals are mixed with a flux and copper. That mixture is smelted together to form a homogenous bar. You can read more on this process here.

Yes! Pacemaker manufacturers such as Boston Scientific, Medtronic or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital would rather get these units back to perform research. Knowing how well they performed helps the manufacturers make better, more efficient models in the future. All the manufacturers have a free send-in program to make it easy for the crematory to send pacemakers back. But if it’s easier for you, we will accept pacemakers with your other metal for recycling. We simply send them back to the appropriate manufacturer.

Recycling is always the best option for the same reason it makes sense to recycle paper, plastic, or aluminum in daily life. The fewer resources we need to mine from the earth, the better. These heavy metals don’t decompose or breakdown quickly, so recycling them for immediate repurposing is a much better solution.

Stainless steel, titanium, cobalt, and chrome are commonly used for orthopedic procedures. These are considered non-precious metals. Precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium are typically found only in dental work.

Because most metals do not vaporize during the cremation process, they are left over when the cremation process is complete. These metals are not part of the deceased and need to be disposed of in a dignified and professional manner. The casket or container will contain metal screws, nails, staples, hardware, and many other metals.

Our bodies may also contain metals in the form of artificial prosthetics. Artificial hips, knees, metal cages used in spinal fusion, and a whole host of other medical implants can be made of metal. Another common source is dental implants. Metals are used to fix decayed, broken or missing teeth. For dental work, the metals can range from precious metals (i.e., gold, silver, platinum, and palladium) to non-precious metals like nickel, chrome, cobalt, and titanium. For orthopedic procedures the metals most commonly used are stainless steel, titanium, cobalt, and chrome.

Using one of the samples, an x-ray assay is performed to quickly determine the metal composition of the bar. We’re able to perform this assay in the presence of our customers for immediate results. It’s the quickest way to back up our transparency policy, which we can further validate with an even more intensive assay later on.