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Currently, the US is getting about 60% of steel recycled, and 80% of aluminum. Nucor Steel, the biggest steel company in the US, runs mostly on recycled steel.

Currently, the US is getting about 60% of steel recycled, and 80% of aluminum. Nucor Steel, the biggest steel company in the US, runs mostly on recycled steel. Their success came from figuring out how to make good sheet metal from recycled steel. Before that, recycled steel was mostly used to make rebar, which is low quality steel. Here's a Nucor steel plant video.[1] Good overview of the process. Note that this is a spherical video and you can change the camera angle to look around. Seven categories of steel junk go in and are mixed depending on the desired product. The video is a bit vague about how the continuous caster works - that's partly proprietary technology. This particular plant is a joint venture with Yamato, but Nucor has other totally-owned plants. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjxJRaAItow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjxJRaAItow

dredmorbius 2y ago
USGS stats give the iron/steel at ~50%, aluminium at ~53%, and the highest achieved rate for lead, at 75% (largely from batteries IIUC): [I]n 2018, recycled material as a percentage of apparent supply of various metals, including aluminum, chromium, copper, iron and steel, lead, magnesium, nickel, tin, and titanium, ranged from a low of 22% for tin to a high of 75% for lead (table 1). in 2018, the United states recycled 58.6 million metric tons (Mt) of metals with a total value of $37.7 billion (excluding zinc, for which data were withheld to avoid disclosing company proprietary data in 2018). 2018 Minerals Yearbook: Recycling --- Metals (2018) <https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-recycling.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-recycling.pdf> (PDF)
- Animats 2y ago
  Various ways to compute this.[1][2] Steel products and scrap are both imported and exported, which confuses things. The data at [3] above seems to treat steel imports as new metal because their recycling inputs are not known. [1] https://www.steel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AISI-and-SMA-Steel-Recycling-Rates-Report-Final-07-27-2021.pdf https://www.steel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AISI-and-SM... [2] https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-iron-steel-scrap.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-iron-steel... [3] https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-recycling.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-recycling.pdf
  - dredmorbius 2y ago
    It's interesting that the USGS itself (your 2nd reference) seems to disagree with itself (my own ref). I'd need to dig further into figures to see how that emerges. (I'm ... somewhat discounting the AISI data as more likely to be skewed industry-positive, that is, with a higher claimed recycling rate.)
    - Animats 2y ago
      It's hard, but the statistics by usage are more clear. Over 90% of automotive and structural steel is recovered. Rebar in concrete, far lower.

dredmorbius 2y ago

USGS stats give the iron/steel at ~50%, aluminium at ~53%, and the highest achieved rate for lead, at 75% (largely from batteries IIUC): [I]n 2018, recycled material as a percentage of apparent supply of various metals, including aluminum, chromium, copper, iron and steel, lead, magnesium, nickel, tin, and titanium, ranged from a low of 22% for tin to a high of 75% for lead (table 1). in 2018, the United states recycled 58.6 million metric tons (Mt) of metals with a total value of $37.7 billion (excluding zinc, for which data were withheld to avoid disclosing company proprietary data in 2018). 2018 Minerals Yearbook: Recycling --- Metals (2018) <https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-recycling.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-recycling.pdf> (PDF)

Animats 2y ago
Various ways to compute this.[1][2] Steel products and scrap are both imported and exported, which confuses things. The data at [3] above seems to treat steel imports as new metal because their recycling inputs are not known. [1] https://www.steel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AISI-and-SMA-Steel-Recycling-Rates-Report-Final-07-27-2021.pdf https://www.steel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AISI-and-SM... [2] https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-iron-steel-scrap.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-iron-steel... [3] https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-recycling.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-recycling.pdf
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  It's interesting that the USGS itself (your 2nd reference) seems to disagree with itself (my own ref). I'd need to dig further into figures to see how that emerges. (I'm ... somewhat discounting the AISI data as more likely to be skewed industry-positive, that is, with a higher claimed recycling rate.)
  - Animats 2y ago
    It's hard, but the statistics by usage are more clear. Over 90% of automotive and structural steel is recovered. Rebar in concrete, far lower.