3 ms·
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 ma
by 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 agoVarious 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 agoIt'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 agoIt's hard, but the statistics by usage are more clear. Over 90% of automotive and structural steel is recovered. Rebar in concrete, far lower.