Steel is one of the most utilized metals in the world, making up everything from the tallest skyscrapers to your everyday kitchen utensils. Steel has driven technological growth and advancement through the Industrial Age and continues to fuel innovation today, with over 1,950,500,000 tonnes produced in 2021 alone.
Steel is an iron alloy, meaning it is made up of a combination of metals and non-metals including carbon, iron, and tin. Like most metals, including aluminum, copper, and brass, steel can be continuously recycled without any damage or degradation to its properties—no matter the product or form it takes.
In fact, steel tops the list of North America’s most recycled materials, with over 60 percent of steel being recycled annually since 1970. Steel’s production by-products also has a high rate of recycling, with 90 percent of the co-products used in steel production—including slag, water, gas, and dust—also being reused or recycled.
This is extremely good news as it relates to steel’s environmental impact and its preservation of our earth’s natural resources. Steel recycling also has a financial imperative for its consumers; not to mention the costs saved for those on the production side.
In this article, we will cover the basics of steel recycling and talk through its wide-reaching benefits—both environmental and financial. But first, let’s go over the different types of steel, and how it can be sorted for recycling.
As reflected in its various purposes, there are multiple types of steel found in steel-based products. The most common variation of steel is known as stainless steel.
The difference between steel and stainless steel is its magnetic properties. Steel itself is highly magnetized, while only certain types of stainless steel hold magnetic properties. This is because steel is a ferrous metal, meaning it contains iron (making it ferromagnetic); whereas stainless steel must contain iron, and the crystal structure of the alloy must be martensitic or ferritic in order to be magnetic.
Stainless steel is known to resist corrosion and hold a slightly higher melting point than other steels. That is why it is typically used in products such as healthcare equipment, food production, cars, and construction projects. Steel, on the other hand, will more commonly be found in household products such as hangers and appliances.
Both steel and stainless steel are recyclable, but it’s still a valuable exercise to separate them due to the potential difference in price and ultimate worth.
While it is true that all forms of steel are recyclable, it’s important to note that the recycling process differs from many other products. This is due to the inherent value of steel—instead of being sent to a landfill or traditional recycling center, steel products will be sold to a scrap yard for compensation.
There are three main sources of steel scrap that is sold to scrap yards: Home Scrap, Prompt or Industrial Scrap, and Obsolete Scrap.
After being collected by scrappers in person, at designated drop-offs, or at buy-back centers, steel scrap is then sorted and sent out to mills or foundries.
The excess steel scrap is then melted down by a furnace that runs at a temperature of nearly 3,000 degrees, and purified to rid the scrap of any contaminants. Then, the melted steel is solidified into sheets and prepped for shipping.
The newly recycled metal is then ready to be sent out to various factories for use as raw material, and the cycle begins again.
As previously mentioned, steel has an extremely high turnover rate of recycled products—in both the steel itself and byproducts used in its production process.
Nearly 69 percent of steel is recycled in the U.S. each year, and that number grows when looking at specific steel goods.
In the end, steel recycling efforts save 75 percent of the overall energy used in production from raw materials. This has huge benefits in the fight to save natural resources, and prevent excess greenhouse gas emissions.
When using recycled materials for production, manufacturers drastically reduce the price of production costs. Steel allows for the use of completely reused materials instead of going through the costly procedure of extracting raw ore from the ground.
The recycling process in the steel industry also drives job creation—producing over 531,000 jobs in scrap recycling and resulting in over $110 billion in economic activity, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
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