BDSV touts scrap benefits to Germany

Düsseldorf, Germany-based BDSV, that nation’s Federal Association of German Steel Recycling and Disposal Cos., has issued a statement along with two other trade associations urging elected and appointed officials in Germany to prioritize scrap recycling when seeking circular economy and emissions-reduction strategies.

BDSV issued the statement along with the VDM, or Association of German Metal Dealers e.V, and the BDE, or Federal Association of German Waste Management, Water and Raw Materials Management.

“On the occasion of the status report of the German circular economy 2020 presented today, the associations BDE, BDSV and VDM point out the special importance of recycled ferrous and nonferrous metals for the circular economy and national economy,” state the groups in part.

They add, “As a production location for many industries, Germany is dependent on raw material imports. Metal recycling can make a significant contribution to securing raw materials in Germany and at the same time save immense energy and CO₂ by using the recycled raw materials in production. The environmental and climate policy goals of Germany and the European Union cannot be achieved without metal recycling.”

The three associations jointly have recommended three measures they say can boost metals recycling:

• Promote resource-efficient recycling and environmental technologies. In the German government’s steel action plan introduced in July, a focus is on the use of hydrogen as a reducing agent in the blast furnace process when decarbonizing the steel industry. “In addition to the cost-intensive technological leaps in the steel industry toward decarbonization, the increased use of steel scrap processed into secondary raw materials can represent a technically mature measure that can be implemented with comparatively little investment,” says BDSV President Andreas Schwenter. In particular, ferrous scrap can be almost 100 percent recycled using the electric arc furnace (EAF) process. For comparison, the groups say, the CO₂ savings in the EU through the use of 93.8 million tons of steel scrap (in 2018) corresponds to the total CO₂ emissions from automobile traffic in France, the United Kingdom and Belgium combined.
• Demand ecological design. “At the beginning, there is product design, and this is exactly where far too little responsibility is taken,” the groups state. “As long as the recyclability of products remains non-binding for manufacturers, there will hardly be any improvements for recyclers,” comments VDM President Petra Zieringer.
• Pass on ecological added value. The groups say Germany’s federal government should examine to what extent the processing of recycled raw materials could be combined with economic incentives and thus promoted. The ecological added value generated in this way should be passed on from the initial recycling raw material to the manufacture of products, they say. The use of aluminum, copper and steel scrap in the manufacture of new products alone saves billions in environmental and climate costs, they add.