Copper and copper alloys are easy to recycle. In 1997, 1.45 million tons of copper was recovered from U.S. processed chips, the same year the U.S. also exported 379,000 tons of copper and copper alloys. The total amount of primary refined copper extracted in the United States from domestic mines and foreign raw materials is 20 tons. About 2/3 of the copper-containing chips are new chips and 1/3 are old chips.

The U.S. has a well-developed infrastructure that supplies copper filings to smelters, smelters, copper rolling mills, foundries, ingot plants, and elsewhere. These mills need copper shavings for machining or for cost savings. About 19% of copper in 1997 was processed in furnaces. Most of the copper smelted in the United States comes from primary smelters associated with mining operations. Most of these plants do not use copper filings, although some do use small amounts to control the temperature of the molten copper in the converter. In the United States, there are two intermediate smelters, the Chemetco plant in Illinois and the Southern Power Equipment plant in Georgia, which processes copper filings. The raw materials for these plants are old copper scraps without impurities, which must be upgraded before they can be recycled.

Most primary refineries in the United States rely on primary smelter blister copper and positive electrodes as their primary source of feedstock supply. Still, a small number of refineries process high-grade No. 1 copper filings or buy blister or positive electrodes from copper filings. In general, ingots smelted by fire or negative electrodes obtained from secondary raw materials are not intended to be used anywhere. Most of these raw materials are used in copper rolling plants. Secondary cathodes may not be suitable for thin wire production, so it was initially used only for home wire production. Some secondary cathodes are also mixed with cathodes from primary smelters and used in other wire and cable production.

Southern Cable Works uses high-grade copper filings to produce cathodes that are used in wire and cable production along with purchased negative electrodes. The Warrenton Refinery is another copper filing facility that produces pyrorefined ingots. Reading Industries and Cerro Copper operate and manage a copper filing plant that supplies the pipe mill. Canada's Noranda and Asarco both use high-grade copper filings in their primary smelters. U.S. refineries process copper filings that account for about 10 percent of the U.S. recycled copper.

Copper rolling mills are the largest consumer of copper scrap in the United States, accounting for more than 50% of total copper scrap consumption in the United States. These copper rolling mills use both copper filings and alloyed copper filings. These raw materials must be high-grade, because it is only to be smelted again, without any refining. Many of the copper filings are new. For example, a large part of the copper scraps used in alloy rod mills is returned copper scrap from consumers. Returned copper scrap is also a major source of raw material supply for bar and sheet producers, but pipe mills use bought copper rather than taxed copper. The scrap contains, on average, about 56 percent of the raw materials needed by the nation's copper rolling mills.

Both ingot producers and foundries rely on scraps for copper, and in 1997 copper scraps accounted for 93% of their copper needs. The requirements for this raw material to produce cast products are generally less demanding than those for gold-clad or painted products, so ingot producers and foundries can use low-grade copper and copper alloy scraps for production.

Copper has a high intrinsic value, which makes copper recycling quite economical. The basic facilities required by scrap collectors, traders, processors and consumers are not supported by the municipality, nor are there any remuneration programs.

When copper scraps are recovered from consumers by copper rolling mills, the price of these scraps is only 90% of the price of the metal in the scraps. For example, when copper rod mills adjust their prices, they set a "brass rod metal value sale price" and a "recovery price to consumers." In the futures market in the United States, the selling price of copper filings It is generally slightly lower than the copper price specified on the Comex market.