Scrap Steel
Steel Recycling: Rest assured that any steel container or product you buy is made, in part, with recycled material. Steel has been recycled since long before it was called “recycling.” The two processes used for making steel today require a minimum of 25 percent recycled content.
Like aluminum, post-consumer steel has high market value and has developed its own recycling system independent of community residential recycling programs. Also like aluminum, the rate of steel recycling by consumers lags behind industrial recycling efforts. Residential recycling programs can help boost overall steel recycling while earning income that can help pay for recycling less lucrative post-consumer material.
The recycling rate for the steel industry is close to 64 percent, but much of the credit goes to automotive steel recycling – which captures close to 100 percent of vehicles taken off the road – and appliance recycling, which has achieved an 84.1 percent recovery rate.
According to U.S. EPA figures from 1999, consumers recycled just 33.6 percent of their steel discards, with a 57.3 percent rate of steel can recycling propping up a 26.9 percent recycling rate for discarded durable goods.
Markets for recycled steel
All steel markets are recycled steel markets. The Basic Oxygen Furnace method for making steel for products such as cans, car bodies, appliances and steel frames requires at least 25 percent recycled steel. The Electric Arc Furnace method for making shaped steel products such as railroad ties and bridge spans uses virtually all recycled steel.
Your local recycling program almost certainly accepts steel cans and probably offers collection dates or drop-off sites for steel appliances. The Ohio Appliance Recycling Roundup has been one of the most successful and comprehensive appliance collection efforts in the United States, according to the Steel Recycling Institute. But all steel is recyclable, either through your recycling program or local scrap metal dealers. Look for opportunities to recycle discards like old steel bottle tops and jar lids, stainless steel flatware, steel toys and other goods. A little advance preparation is needed to recycle other steel containers such as:
Aerosol cans: Be sure to use up the product because the can must be empty to be recycled. If the can cannot be emptied because the nozzle is broken, consider returning it to the point of purchase. Empty aerosol cans can be recycled with other household steel cans.
Paint cans: You can recycle paint cans with your other steel cans if you leave the lid off to allow any residue inside to dry out. Cans containing liquid paint you also plan to discard should probably be set aside for household hazardous waste collections.
Oil filters: If you change and recycle your used motor oil, take a moment to recycle the oil filter as well. Carefully puncture the domed end of the can with a screwdriver and allow it to drain into your used oil recycling container. Your local recycling program probably does not routinely take old oil filters, but should be able to help you identify a local garage or scrap dealer who can.
Conservation benefits of steel recycling
• It takes approximately four times more energy to make new steel from iron, carbon and other elements than from recycled steel products.
• For every pound of steel recycled, enough energy is saved to light a 60-watt bulb for 24 hours.
• The energy saved by steel recycling each year is enough to meet the annual electric needs of 20 percent of American households.
• Saving energy means cutting pollution and the environmental impact of mining. Recycling one ton of steel saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,000 pounds of coal and 40 pounds of limestone.
• Ohio's steel industry has been a help to Ohio recyclers, purchasing nearly seven million tons of scrap each year from Ohio's 180 scrap dealers, shredders and buy-back centers.
• Though steel enjoys a relatively high recycling rate, there is a lot of room for progress. Americans throw away more steel and iron annually than domestic automakers use in a year.
• The steel industry recycles many of its by-products. More than 150,000 tons of slag – a gritty by-product of steelmaking – is used in paving roads, bridges, parking lots and other construction projects.
17.04.2007. 10:16
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