Consumers

Copper and the Environment

Copper has had a long and lasting friendship with the environment. Not only is copper's recycling rate higher than that of any other engineering metal, scientists also have discovered that copper and copper alloys can actually inhibit the growth of bacteria, viruses and fungi.

Copper can easily lay claim to being one of the planet's most versatile materials. Nearly all of the 700 billion pounds of copper ever mined (of an estimated 5.8 trillion pounds yet to be unearthed) is still in circulation. Scientists, metallurgists and product developers are continually discovering new and beneficial effects that copper and copper applications have on our environment.