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Steel Recycling 101

August 2, 2016

The NERC Blog will be on an August "vacation." Previously posted articles will fill the void. With more than four years of published blogs there are alot of good ones worth repeating. Today's is from March 2013. It seemed appropriate after a morning office discussion on recycling markets. - Athena

Today's Guest Blog is by Casey Fenton, Communications Assistant for the Steel Recycling Institute.

Steel Recycling logoAs long as steel has been around, steel has been recycled. Melting down scrap metal to process into new material to create useful products has always been a vital part of steel's life cycle. The creation of a vast recycling infrastructure was essential to grow and expand as the nation grew. The essential need of steel scrap continued to push sustainable advances of steel along with positioning the material as North America's #1 most recycled material.

More steel is recycled each year than paper, plastic, aluminum and glass combined. Steel has an overall recycling rate of 92% (2011) and over 90 million tons of steel are recycled annually. While many industries attempt to promote themselves as "being green", steel has no need since they already have been for so long. With increased innovation they have been able to recycle more, increasing the overall steel recycling rate 25% in 20 years, while decreasing the energy intensity per ton of steel by 30% over the same time period. Steel is not only being recycled more often but it is being recycled more effectively than ever.

With over 8,000 curbside programs and nearly 13,000 drop-off programs, according to the National Recycling Database run by the Steel Recycling Institute (SRI), the availability of responsible avenues for disposing of steel products is accessible to almost every American. The ease of putting a steel food or beverage can in their blue bins is only matched by the near effortless sorting methods at material recovery facilities (MRF).

When materials are collected and transported from a blue bin or drop-off to a MRF, all recyclables are loaded on to a sorting line. Steel food and empty aerosol cans, like all steel products, are magnetically attracted. Virtually all MRF's have magnetic belts which are used to separate the valuable steel scrap. Once sorted, they fall into a large bin, then are baled and shipped to mills to be melted down into a variety of new steel products across several markets.

The steel industry from cradle to grave, or cradle to cradle as some in the steel industry describe it more accurately to represent the continuous life cycle of the material, is made up of gatherers, collectors, processors and end users. The gatherers are the consumers and businesses that place their discarded steel products into the bins. Each steel can represents a charitable donation to Earth by helping it avoid wasting landfill space and conserving natural resources. For each ton of steel recycled, 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone are saved.

The collectors are the curbside operators and drop-off haulers who bring your recyclables to the processors, which are the MRF operators and scrap dealers who oversee the automatically magnetically separated steel, as they are crushed into large bales. They next deliver the bales of steel cans to the end users, that is, the steel mill operators in turn for making new steel to ship to manufacturers. These manufacturers could also be seen as the beginning users as they create the products that start this cycle in the first place.

Absent any one of these important stations in the continuous life cycle journey, all others will suffer. They all simultaneously receive and provide, and rely on while being relied upon.

Despite the ease of the consumer providing and the industry processing, why is it that some valuable steel scrap continues to slip through fingers? Why are there still misconceptions about empty steel aerosol cans that unnecessarily diminish their acceptance rates? Recycling steel conserves resources, including energy and water, while also providing a commodity that supports an entire industry to create jobs across all regions of our country.

The next time you're holding a steel can in your hand, remember that it isn't just a few ounces you're holding. You're holding all the benefits that recycling that can will provide as well.

The Steel Recycling Institute (SRI) is an industry association that promotes and sustains the recycling of all steel products. SRI helps to educate the solid waste industry, government, business, and ultimately the consumer about the benefits of steel's infinite recycling cycle.

Guest Blog’s represent the opinion of the writer and may not reflect the policy or position of the Northeast Recycling Council, Inc.

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