The Steel Recycling Institute announced that the recycling rates for a variety of steel products increased slightly in 2003.
SRI reported that almost 69 million tons of steel were recycled last year, bringing the steel recycling rate to 70.7 percent.
Steel-dominated consumer products, such as cans, cars, and appliances, however, showed slight increases, which is a result of the increased value of steel scrap during the second half of 2003. More than 14.2 million tons of steel from end of life vehicles was recycled in 2003, resulting in a 102.9 percent rate, up 2.3 percent from the 100.6 percent registered in 2002.
More than 2.6 million tons of appliances and almost 1.6 millions tons of steel cans were recycled last year, resulting in recycling rates of 89.7 and 60.2 percent, respectively.
In 2003, we continued to see the trend of increased ferrous recycling in the construction and demolition arena. Heavy structural beams’ and plates’ recycling was up slightly to 96 percent, from a 95 percent level in 2002, while recycling of rebar continued to grow and is estimated to have finished 2003 at 60 percent, up from 57.5 percent the previous year, Bill Heenan, president of the SRI noted. “Based on the value of scrap through the first four months of 2004, we are well on our way to continuing the upward trend of recycling rates for steel commodities this year,” Heenan said. “This provides our industry with a precious raw material that dramatically reduces our energy consumption and our need for virgin raw materials.”