Scrap, a word, describing any material which can be recycled after a product has been used and is no longer useful for what it was originally intended. The scrap metal industry is as old as industrialization when the use of metal in industries and products increased manifold. With the huge increase in the use of different metals for manufacturing, cars, consumer products like refrigerators, furniture, etc, scrap too was generated when these products were damaged or were unusable.

As demand and prices of metals increased, industries started looking at recycling the metal products that were discarded. This led to the birth of the scrap metal and recycling industry. Recycled scrap helps the environment and keeps the air and water cleaner by removing many potentially hazardous materials and keeps them out of landfills.