From Scrap Handling to Resource Recovery: Why Professional Cable Recycling Is Changing in 2026

September 2026 | Cable Recycling & Environmental Technology

For decades, scrap electrical wires and cables were often treated as low-value waste.

They were collected, sorted, stripped manually or sold as mixed scrap.

But the recycling industry is changing.

In 2026, the focus is increasingly moving from simply handling waste to recovering valuable materials in a more controlled and efficient way.

This change is particularly important for waste electrical and electronic equipment, construction waste, telecommunications infrastructure and industrial cable scrap.

And at the center of this transformation is a simple material:

Copper.

Cable Recycling Is Entering a More Professional Era

The global recycling industry is facing a fundamental challenge.

More electrical and electronic equipment is being replaced, while industries are simultaneously looking for ways to recover more valuable materials from products at the end of their useful lives.

The International Telecommunication Union has highlighted the growing challenge of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), noting that global e-waste generation reached 62 million tonnes in 2022 and is expected to reach 82 million tonnes by 2030. Its recommendations emphasize environmentally sound collection, dismantling, recovery and resource valorization.

This is creating a new expectation for recycling businesses.

It is no longer enough to ask:

“How can we get rid of this cable waste?”

The more important question is:

“How much valuable material can we recover from it?”

That difference is changing the business model of cable recycling.

New International Standards Put More Attention on Recovery Quality

A significant development in 2026 is the publication of IEC 63395:2026, a new international standard addressing the sustainable management of waste electrical and electronic equipment.

The standard covers the process from collection through the return of recovered products, components, materials or energy to the value chain.

Importantly, it also addresses areas such as traceability, monitoring, recovery rate and recovery quality.

This reflects a broader trend across the recycling sector.

Recycling is increasingly being evaluated not only by how much waste enters a recycling facility, but also by:

• What materials are recovered

• How effectively they are separated

• What quality the recovered materials have

• Whether the process can be monitored

• Whether recovered materials can re-enter the industrial value chain

For cable recyclers, this means that equipment selection is becoming an increasingly important part of the recycling process.

Why Old Cables Are More Than “Scrap”

A discarded cable may look simple from the outside.

But it is actually a combination of materials.

The conductor may contain copper, while the outer layers may consist of plastic or other insulating materials.

If these materials remain mixed together, the economic value of the recovered copper can be limited.

If they are processed and separated appropriately, the same cable can become two or more useful material streams.

This is the fundamental idea behind copper wire granulation.

Instead of treating a cable as a single waste product, the recycler processes it as a combination of recoverable resources.

The basic process can be represented as:

Scrap Cable → Size Reduction → Granulation → Separation → Copper Granules + Non-Metallic Material

The exact process configuration depends on the cable type and feedstock characteristics.

But the objective remains the same:

Recover more value from material that would otherwise be treated as waste.

Europe Is Explicitly Identifying Cables as a Recovery Opportunity

The change is also visible at the regulatory level.

In May 2026, the European Union published Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1116, identifying products, components and waste streams considered to have relevant critical raw material recovery potential.

The regulation specifically includes energy infrastructure and telecommunications infrastructure, as well as construction and demolition waste with a focus on copper, copper alloys and cables in buildings.

This is an important signal for the recycling industry.

Cable waste is not simply a disposal problem.

It is increasingly recognized as part of a potential secondary raw-material supply.

For recyclers, that creates a reason to improve the way cable waste is collected, processed and separated.

Why Manual Cable Stripping Is Not Always Enough

Manual stripping can make sense for certain types of cable.

It can be useful when the cable is large, uniform and easy to process.

But many recycling businesses receive mixed cable scrap.

The incoming material may include:

• Different cable diameters

• Flexible wires

• Electrical wires

• Communication cables

• Short cable pieces

• Insulated copper wires

• Irregular scrap

Processing this material manually can become time-consuming and labor-intensive.

A mechanical granulation system provides another approach.

Instead of relying entirely on manual labor, the cable is mechanically reduced and processed so that the copper and non-metallic fractions can be separated.

This can be particularly useful when a recycling business needs to process a larger and more continuous volume of material.

The Goal Is Not Simply “More Processing”

An important point for equipment buyers is that higher capacity does not automatically mean better recycling economics.

A recycling machine should be matched to the material being processed.

For example, a business processing a relatively small amount of cable each day may not benefit from installing a large industrial system.

Conversely, a recycler receiving several hundred kilograms of cable every hour may find manual processing increasingly difficult to scale.

This is why professional equipment selection should consider several factors:

Feedstock

What kind of cable is available?

Volume

How much cable can be supplied consistently?

Material Composition

What proportion of the incoming material is copper, plastic and other components?

Required Throughput

How many kilograms per hour does the business actually need to process?

Installation

What are the available space and electrical conditions?

Downstream Market

Where will the recovered copper and non-metallic materials go after separation?

A machine is only one part of the recycling business.

The complete material flow is what determines the commercial result.

JIACUI Develops Copper Wire Granulators for Different Processing Requirements

Henan Jiacui Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. (JIACUI) provides a range of copper wire granulators designed for different processing capacities.

The company's technical documentation lists multiple models, including the RC-CWG46A, RC-CWG260, RC-CWG300, RC-CWG350, RC-CWG400, RC-CWG660, RC-CWG800 and RC-CWG1000.
The range allows different recycling operations to consider equipment according to their expected throughput.

The RC-CWG46A is specified at approximately 60–80 kg/h, with a total power rating of 5.58 kW.

The RC-CWG260 increases the specified capacity to approximately 150–170 kg/h, with total power of 9.05 kW.

For higher-volume operations, the RC-CWG400 is specified at approximately 350–400 kg/h, while the RC-CWG660 is specified at approximately 600–650 kg/h.

The larger models include the RC-CWG800, with a specified capacity of approximately 700–900 kg/h, and the RC-CWG1000, with a specified capacity of approximately 900–1,000 kg/h.
This range reflects an important principle in recycling equipment:

The best machine is not necessarily the biggest machine. It is the machine that matches the feedstock, throughput requirement and operating environment.

Better Separation Can Mean Better Material Management

The value of cable recycling is closely related to separation.

When copper remains mixed with plastic insulation, the recycler is dealing with a mixed material.

Once the materials are separated, each fraction can be handled according to its own downstream use.

Copper can enter a metal recycling chain.

The non-metallic fraction can be managed separately according to its composition and local recycling requirements.

This makes material separation a fundamental step in transforming waste management into resource recovery.

The objective is not to create waste more quickly.

It is to create cleaner, more manageable material streams.

Recycling Is Becoming More Data- and Quality-Driven

Another major change in the recycling sector is the growing importance of documentation and process control.

The new IEC 63395:2026 standard's emphasis on traceability, monitoring, recovery rate and recovery quality reflects this broader movement.

For international recycling companies, this may become increasingly relevant.

Customers purchasing recycled materials may want more information about the material.

Regulators may require better waste-flow management.

Recycling businesses may need to demonstrate that their operations meet environmental and quality requirements.

Equipment therefore needs to be considered not simply as machinery, but as part of a larger recycling workflow.

The Economics of Cable Recycling Are Changing

There is another reason why this shift matters.

Copper has become an increasingly important strategic material.

At the same time, the world's electrification trend is increasing the need for copper in power networks, renewable energy, electric vehicles, data centers and other infrastructure.

This creates a situation in which the recycling industry is being asked to recover more copper from existing products and infrastructure.

A 2026 analysis published by cable manufacturer Nexans argues that global copper demand could reach around 40 million tonnes by 2030, compared with projected production capacity of approximately 33 million tonnes, highlighting the importance of recycled copper as part of the future supply picture.

This does not mean recycling will replace mining.

Instead, it means that secondary copper is becoming an increasingly important part of the overall resource equation.

For scrap cable processors, that can create a strong reason to improve processing efficiency.

What Does This Mean for Cable Recycling Businesses?

The recycling industry is moving toward a more professional model.

The old model was:

Collect → Sort → Sell

The emerging model is closer to:

Collect → Process → Separate → Recover → Verify → Sell

That difference is significant.

A recycling company that invests in appropriate processing equipment may have greater control over the material it receives and the recovered products it produces.

For businesses with a stable supply of scrap cable, a copper wire granulator can therefore become more than a waste-processing machine.

It can become part of the company's material recovery infrastructure.

JIACUI's Equipment Range Covers Different Scales

One advantage of having multiple machine models is that recycling businesses can evaluate equipment according to their actual operation rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.

For example:

These figures are based on JIACUI's published technical specifications and should be treated as reference capacities; actual performance depends on feedstock and operating conditions.
This gives buyers a practical starting point when comparing equipment.

Rather than asking which copper granulator is “the best,” a more useful question is:

Which processing configuration is appropriate for our cable waste?

The Next Step in Cable Recycling Is Better Resource Recovery

The recycling industry is gradually moving away from the idea that waste simply needs to disappear.

The new objective is to understand what value remains inside the waste and recover as much of that value as practical.

For electrical cables, that value is often concentrated in the copper conductor.

The combination of new international standards, circular economy policies and increasing demand for secondary raw materials is pushing the industry in the same direction:

better collection, better processing and better recovery.

For recycling companies, this creates an opportunity.

The cable waste arriving at a recycling facility today may become a source of secondary copper tomorrow.

And the equipment used to process that cable can determine how efficiently the material moves from waste stream to resource stream.

From Waste Management to Resource Management

The future of cable recycling is unlikely to be defined simply by how much waste a company can process.

It will increasingly be defined by how effectively the company can recover, separate and manage the valuable materials contained within that waste.

That is the real opportunity behind copper wire granulation.

A discarded cable is not the end of a material's life.

With the right collection, processing and recycling system, it can become the beginning of another one.

For the global recycling industry, that shift—from waste treatment to resource recovery—may prove to be one of the most important changes of the decade.