Metal scrap may represent an enormous source of raw materials for manufacturing metals and their alloys. Proper preparation of the scrap is of essential importance for quality and economics of production processes. Therefore, growing demand for metal scrap should be followed by development of technologies directed at making the scrap usable. The paper deals with the problems of metal scrap management in poland. The author classifies sources and types scrap metals and discusses the methods of scrap collecting. She also presents technologies of making metal scrap usable: they include all processes that prepare scrap from the point of view of its chemical and physical properties to use it as a charge for remelting in metallurgical plants. Various techniques of metal scrap beneficiation are shown as well as examples of flowsheets used in separation of scrap metals. Extending the hitherto existing methods of scrap collecting and recycling into "deep" scrap beneficiation may result not only in obtaining better selected secondary raw materials for smelters, but also in better protecting of the environment.