Steel Scrap's Vital Role in Reducing Carbon Emissions

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): In a blog post, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) emphasized the critical role that steel scrap plays in the global steel industry, with a particular emphasis on how important it is for lowering carbon dioxide emissions.

Steel can be recycled indefinitely and 100% of the time without losing quality, according to Felipe Maciel, Manager of Environment and Climate Change at worldsteel. End-of-life products can have their steel melted down and recycled into new steel. Starting with collection, there are several steps involved, including sifting, shredding, melting, refining, casting, and rolling.

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Compared to the conventional blast furnace technology, the EAF route produces steel with substantially reduced average carbon dioxide emissions. Around 650 Mt of end-of-life scrap are produced annually, according to worldsteel estimates, which helps to prevent about 975 Mt of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Due mostly to the availability of steel utilized in China during the first ten years of the twenty-first century, it is anticipated that the amount of scrap accessible for recycling will rise to approximately 900 Mt by 2050. worldsteel pointed out that this is far less than the 1.75 billion tonnes of scrap steel that the steel industry needs.