Steel is an alloy of iron with a small percentage of carbon added for strength and other elements added for corrosion resistance and additional characteristics. U.S. steel mills turn out millions of tons of steel a month, according to the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau. Most of the material used to produce that steel is recycled, and most of the steel that leaves the mill will be recycled itself, often many times.
No. 1 Material
Steel is the single most recycled material in the world, according to the Steel Recycling Institute. In 2008, more than 80 million tons of steel were recycled just in the United States. By weight, more steel is recycled than all other materials combined, including aluminum, glass and paper.
Raw Material
Scrap steel has become the largest source of raw material for steelmakers, the Steel Recycling Institute says. In other words, most new steel today is made from old steel rather than from iron ore freshly extracted from the ground. Two out of three lbs. of new steel is actually old steel.
Overall Rate
More than 80 percent of all waste steel in the United States is recycled rather than sent to landfills, according to the Steel Recycling Institute. The recycling rate gets a boost from the fact that so much steel is used in durable items such as cars, appliances and construction materials. The disposal infrastructure for such items is geared toward recycling, so that when they reach the end of their useful lives, they're almost invariably recycled.
Automobiles
According to "Recycling Today" magazine, the industry defines the recycling rate for a particular product as the amount of steel recycled from old products compared with the amount going into new products. In other words, if 5 tons of steel from widgets gets recycled in a year and 10 tons are used to make new widgets, the recycling rate is 50 percent. According to figures compiled by the Steel Recycling Institute, the product with the highest recycling rate is automobiles, whose rate was more than 100 percent for the first decade of the 21st century. Because cars are getting lighter, more steel was being recycled from old cars than was used in all new cars.
Other Products
Steel recycling rates for other common products in 2008, according to the Steel Recycling Institute: appliances, 90 percent; cans and other containers, 65 percent; structural construction materials, such as beams and girders, about 98 percent; reinforcement construction materials, such as "re-bar" for concrete, 70 percent.
Stainless Steel
The International Stainless Steel Forum estimates that 80 percent to 90 percent of all stainless steel is recycled. Stainless steel is an alloy that contains chromium and other valuable minerals, such as nickel and molybdenum, which increases the financial incentive to recycle.
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