Morocco produces glass and ceramics on a large scale: bottle and flat-glass works, tile, sanitaryware and industrial pottery factories, faience and decorative ceramics workshops. All these plants share one thing: furnaces that run continuously, at very high temperatures, surrounded by heavy steel structures, moulds, conveyors and forming lines. When a furnace reaches the end of its campaign and must be rebuilt, when a line is modernised or when a workshop closes, tonnes of metal have to be managed properly — in conditions where residual heat, solidified glass and refractory materials complicate every job.
The distinctive feature of these industries is the thermal environment. Glass melting furnaces and ceramic firing kilns are surrounded by steel frameworks, burner frames, heat recuperators, fans and pipework, but also by refractory bricks and concretes, fibrous insulation and glass or ceramic pieces left inside the installations. Metal is never recovered raw: it must be separated from refractories, broken glass and insulation, the furnace must be fully cooled, and all energy sources locked out before any cutting begins. This guide reviews the metal deposits of Morocco's glassworks and ceramics plants, the sorting to apply, and how to organise removals that fit your furnace shutdowns.
The metal deposits of a glassworks
A glassworks is first and foremost a plant of furnaces and hot lines. The core of the process — melting, forming, annealing — uses basin or pot melting furnaces, forming machines, annealing ovens known as lehrs, inspection, sorting and packing lines, and all the handling equipment that connects them. Around the furnace you find steel structures, crown frames, working doors and inspection ports, burner frames, gas and fuel-oil pipework, heat exchangers and recuperators, blowing and extraction fans, electrical cabinets and copper wiring, as well as hall frameworks and metal chimneys.
The second deposit is the cold end and logistics: belt and roller conveyors, palletisers, wrapping machines, forklifts and their masts, metal pallets, storage racks, raw-material silos — sand, soda, limestone — with their structures and transfer screws, and maintenance workshops with their lathes, milling machines and spare-parts stocks. Aluminium joinery, guard rails, walkways and metal staircases complete the picture. During a furnace rebuild, a whole area of the plant often clears out at once: a large, mixed load that must be sorted on site before loading. Our guide to sorting metals in a company covers the basics of this sorting, and our article on scrap metal from cement plants and building materials completes the picture of high-temperature industries.
Melting furnaces and ceramic kilns: structures, burners and refractories
In a glassworks, the furnace itself holds the heaviest metal: steel tie-rod frameworks, tie bars, crown frames, working-door frames, burner chassis, gas ramps, valves and steel or stainless pipework, fans and air ducts. Burners, nozzles and fuel-feed parts are sorted separately, as they often combine several alloys. Recuperators and exchangers, in steel or cast iron, are bulky pieces that must be cut on site after complete cooling and energy lockout.
In a ceramics plant, tunnel kilns and intermittent kilns bring a comparable deposit: steel chassis, kiln cars and firing trolleys on rails, pushers, doors and seals, cooling fans, burners and ramps, hot-air dryers with their fans and ducts, glazing booths and decorating lines. Kiln cars deserve special attention: their metal chassis carries refractory slabs and supports that must be separated before loading. One essential point applies to both industries: refractory bricks and concretes never leave with the metal. They belong to a dedicated waste stream and must be isolated as soon as dismantling starts, so they do not contaminate the steel loads. Our article on scrap metal from steelworks, foundries and metallurgy describes very similar furnace and refractory issues.
Moulds, conveyors and forming lines
Moulds are a deposit of their own, in glass as in ceramics. Glass moulds — blank and finish moulds, bottoms, rings and forming-machine parts — are usually cast iron or steel, sometimes special alloys for parts exposed to the harshest thermal cycles. Ceramic moulds — casting, pressing and sizing moulds — are steel, aluminium or metal-reinforced resin. Worn, cracked or obsolete after a model change, they pile up in workshops: sorted by metal, cast iron on one side and steel on the other, they go to their own recovery streams instead of leaving as a mixture.
Conveyors and forming lines complete the load: belt conveyors with their steel frames, rollers, chains, sprockets and motors, forming, pressing, cutting and polishing machines, screen-printing or glazing decoration lines, optical inspection machines and packing lines. Motors and gear motors are handled separately, without wild dismantling: we then separate the copper from the windings, the steel from the casings and the aluminium from the fins. For the metal packaging linked to packing lines, our article on scrap metal from the metal packaging industry gives the right sorting habits.
Copper, aluminium and stainless steel: sort without mixing
The move that changes everything in a glassworks or ceramics plant is separating the non-ferrous metals before loading. Stainless steel is found in water and steam pipework, exchangers, preparation tanks, wet-line parts and glazing-booth components; carbon steel dominates frameworks, chassis and machine bases. Mixed, they all leave as ordinary scrap; separated, stainless keeps its identity and goes to its own stream. A magnet is enough for a first sort: austenitic stainless is barely magnetic, unlike carbon steel. Our article on stainless steel buy-back explains the distinctions to know.
Copper concentrates in motor windings, electrical cabinets, transformers and the wiring of lines and furnaces — a particularly large deposit, since glass and ceramics plants are heavily electrified. Aluminium is found in joinery, covers, light chassis, protective structures and some moulds. These non-ferrous metals deserve their own containers, sheltered from moisture and broken glass. For copper in particular, our guide to copper buy-back recalls best practice, and our article on scrap metal from the plastics and rubber industry completes the picture of processing industries.
Heat, safety and decontamination before removal
No removal starts before complete cooling. A melting furnace or tunnel kiln stays dangerously hot long after shutdown: build the cooling time into the schedule, then lock out all energy sources — gas, fuel oil, electricity, compressed air, hydraulics — before any dismantling. Hot zones, vitrified surfaces and thermally stressed parts must be identified and marked off, and hot cutting only takes place on cooled structures, cleared of fibrous insulation and combustible residue, with a hot-work permit when the site requires one.
Decontamination follows a simple logic: drain fuel-oil circuits and hydraulic oils, isolate glazing products and colorants — metal oxides, pigments, slips — which must not contaminate the metal loads, remove residual glass and ceramic debris from the structures, and separate fibrous insulation from metals. Used refractories, raw-material dusts and concentrated chemicals belong to dedicated streams, in coordination with the site's environmental manager. A clean, identified load means faster loading, more reliable weighing and a recovery stream that accepts the metal without reservation — and a plant that stays compliant with its environmental obligations.
Organising removal during furnace shutdowns
The intervention window is short and precious: furnace shutdowns in a glassworks or ceramics plant are planned around production campaigns, rebuilds and orders, and maintenance teams need access and working areas. Plan the removal as soon as the shutdown is announced: load inventory, a regrouping area cleared away from hot flows, truck access, lifting equipment for heavy pieces — frameworks, furnace chassis, kiln cars, recuperators — and a site contact to validate the inventory and coordinate with maintenance.
Safety deserves special attention in these plants: sharp broken glass, slippery wet-zone floors, dust, heavy parts at height and vehicle traffic in crowded halls. Before any dismantling, mark off drop zones, wear suitable protective equipment — cut-resistant gloves, goggles, reinforced footwear — and keep unauthorised staff out of cutting areas. MOUMETAL works on site throughout Morocco, with loading equipment suited to industrial access, and full traceability of collected loads.
FAQ — Scrap metal from the glass and ceramics industry
When should a removal be planned in a glassworks or ceramics plant? During a planned furnace shutdown, when the installations concerned are cooled, locked out and accessible. Plan ahead as soon as the shutdown is announced: inventory, regrouping area and truck access are prepared before the maintenance teams arrive.
Must a furnace be fully cooled before removal? Yes, absolutely: a melting furnace or tunnel kiln stays dangerous long after shutdown. No dismantling starts before complete cooling and lockout of all energy sources.
Do refractory bricks leave with the scrap metal? No, never: they belong to a dedicated stream and must be separated from metals as soon as dismantling starts, so they do not contaminate the steel loads.
What should be done with residual glass in a stopped furnace? It must be removed from the structures before loading: solidified glass, debris and cullet are sorted separately, with suitable gloves, because they are sharp and needlessly add weight to metal loads.
Does MOUMETAL work in all glass and ceramics regions? Yes: Casablanca, Tangier, Fes, Marrakech, Agadir and all of Morocco — with on-site removals and full traceability of loads.
Have the metals of your glassworks or ceramics plant recovered by MOUMETAL
Glassworks, tile, sanitaryware and ceramics factories: MOUMETAL collects and recovers your metals across Morocco, with removals planned around your furnace shutdowns and full traceability. To go further, read our guide to metal sorting, our article on scrap metal from cement plants and building materials and our scrap metal selling page. Contact us: +212 660 690 806 — contact@moumetal.com.