The earth has a limited amount of ore to be mined in the creation of metal products. It is more energy intensive to extract these ores from the earth to be used in the creation of products we use. Ores mined from the earth are raw and mixed with other products that are not beneficial. The costs of removing the impurities is also costly both in time and labor as well in the expenditure of other natural resources to create a finished product.
Recycling metals that already have been refined is beneficial as it uses less of our other natural resources in production and creates less opportunities for pollution of the air through dust and gases and water usage and pollution. In addition, reusing these metals stops them from being discarded into landfills.