From the reduction of CO2 emissions to saving trillions of liters of water, the environmental benefits of making crude steel from recycled steel were presented at The Bureau of International Recycling’s (BIR), convention in Valencia. The benefits featured in a new study for BIR and were among discussion topics at a meeting of BIR’s Ferrous Division. This was chaired by Shane Mellor, the division’s president and managing director of Mellor Metals (GBR).
Mellor said that “with over 90 percent of global steel production now originating from countries with strong decarbonization targets, the demand for low carbon materials has never been greater. As metal recyclers, we are perfectly positioned as key enablers of this transition, but our impact must be demonstrated with robust credible data, data that not only quantifies our environmental footprint but also the transformative value of recycled metal in producing true green steel.”
A key rationale for the study compiled with consultancy KPMG, is to have a wider set of arguments and data for the sector to use when faced by regulators and critics. Daniel Pietikainen, BIR’s trade and environment policy officer, claimed that the study’s findings would help in arguments against “unjustified policies that are being introduced”. He described the study – The Environmental Benefits of Recycling – as “groundbreaking”. It was needed “to show the positive value created not just economically but also in terms of the environment. This information delivered to the right people, the right policy makers at the right time can result in positive regulatory changes for all of our businesses.”
Pietikainen continued, “The data is definitely pointing in a specific direction – we can see that the industry is already fueling massive environmental savings annually.” Outlining the savings from using recycled steel, he said that carbon savings were equivalent to the emissions of large countries; the energy consumption saved equated to hundreds of millions of households per year; water savings were of trillions of liters of water (millions of swimming pools); and thousands of square kilometers of land was being saved.
Tariffs were also discussed by the panel. Michael Gaylard, Sims Metal’s global head of ferrous trade (U.S.) spoke of the challenges of planning for shipments in light of the latest tariff date changes. He said that despite the latest delay on tariffs to be imposed on Europe by the U.S. government until July 9, “there is nothing you can really do planning wise”. Gaylard also touched on AI and how Asian customers were in particular looking at how it can be used in the container sector, although there are operational challenges with small yards in relation to the amount of containers passing through on a daily basis. He noted: “There are multiple steel mills that are working on this at the moment and have been for some time.”
Published June 2025
