Steel, a ferrous metal that is used in so many applications for our economy, commercial and personal uses, has a major recycling tradition dating back 150 years. It is an American legacy.
As economies continue to become greener, steel remains as an important part of the global recycling industry and and is at the core of the green economy, in which economic growth and environmental responsibility work hand in hand.
As seen in the chart above, steel is North America's most recycled material. More steel is recycled annually than paper, plastic, aluminum, glass and copper combined. This is because steel scrap is an essential raw material in making new steel. As a result, each year millions of tons of steel are collected through recycling programs, and more people are participating in separating their used items into recycling bins.
What are the benefits of recycling steel?
The recycling of scrap metals use of steel scrap to make new steel conserves energy, reduces emissions and conserves natural resources. Recycling steel helps save landfill space while providing a valuable scrap resource to the steel industry. Using old steel to make new steel also preserves natural resources and energy. For every ton of steel recycled, 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone are conserved. In one year, the steel industry conserves the equivalent energy to power about 18 million homes for 12 months or enough to provide the city of Los Angeles power for roughly eight years.
Appliances - Metals Recycling
Appliances will typically have about 60% steel content. The steel that is used in manufacturing new appliances is made with a minimum of 25 percent recycled steel. Internal components may be made using recycled steel also. For this reason, all appliances contain recycled steel and are recyclable when they have past their usefulness. After being recycled the steel recovered from these appliances can be made into different steel products and their continuous life cycle runs on, as steel has no memory and can be recycled into any other steel product.
From Cruising to Car Crushing - Recycling our Vehicles
In the U.S., our vehicles are most common recycled consumer product. We might not take a car to the scrap yard ourselves, but they get there eventually. Almost everyone has seen the images of a car being crushed into a much smaller box of compressed metal. The steel recycling industry processes more than 18 million tons of steel from cars that are past their usability. The amount of recycled steel being taken from old cars and being used in new cars is very high. Over the years this has saved the auto industry hundreds of billions in energy savings and materials. Each year, nearly 100 percent of the cars leaving the road are recycled for their iron and steel content. At the scrap yard reusable parts, such as doors, seats, hoods, trunk lids, windows, wheels and other parts are removed from the cars. During this same process, cars are drained of fluids, mercury switches are removed and the cars are prepared for environmentally responsible recycling. Once the cars are stripped of reusable parts, the remaining automobile hulks enter the shredder. The shredding process for cars lasts only 45 seconds. The shredder, rips the car into fist-sized chunks of steel, nonferrous metals and fluff (non-recyclable rubber, glass, plastic, etc). The iron and steel are magnetically separated from the other materials and recycled.
100 Million Steel Cans a Day
Americans use 100 million steel cans each day. During that same day, more than 67 million cans are recycled by steel companies throughout North America. With more and more Americans participating in separating the metal cans into recycling bins, it benefits the environment and our economy. Recycling as much steel as possible is becoming a increasing mainstream focus.
Residential and Commercial Construction
As popular as wood is for new construction of homes, steel is starting to become a viable alternative.
Builders are starting to use lightweight steel framing to construct homes, and are doing so with great success. Steel’s sudden growth in residential popularity has been fueled by increasing economic and environmental considerations in the building industry. Wood has been the material builders traditionally used to construct residential homes in North America but builders and homeowners are coming to realize the increasing benefits of choosing steel as an alternative building material.
Talway Recycling continues to provide competitive pricing and services related to both ferrous and non ferrous metals at our recycling locations in Aurora, Oregon.
* information resources for this blog include the Steel Recycling Institute, Scrap Magazine, and Wikipedia
nice article, steel is one of the most highly used metal and if not used in recycle we may see shortage. That's why it is beneficial as well as essential to recycle steel and use in production of new steel products
ReplyDeleteSteel is a highly important resource today in society. Recycling crushed cars is one of the few ways we can reuse and reduce with it.
ReplyDelete-David Enabulele
Atlanta Junk Cars
We've been buying junk cars in Atlanta since 2007, and I can absolutely attest to the huge opportunity and profits that can be made by recycling junk cars, not to mention the impact it has on our environment.
ReplyDelete