July 3, 2007

Recycling

Steel is the most recycled material on earth

Yvonne Bendo

correspondent

You don’t have to tell anyone in the steel industry about the need to recycle.

They’ve been on board before it was even trendy to go green.

“It’s vital to our industry ...Steel is the most recycled material on earth,” says Steve Sampson, Canadian Steel Producers Association’s director of trade and economics.

“It’s an infinite source of recycling,” he says, noting that it doesn’t loose its integrity with reuse. “We think it’s one of the greatest products.”

So steel from torn down buildings, to old cars and refrigerators is given new life as it’s burned down and transformed into new steel products at the mills.

But that means scrap metal has a value and at times it is in high demand and can impact pricing. “Steel is made of 90 per cent recycled material,” says Dave Mackinnon, director of codes and standards at the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction.

He said 80 per cent of steel is recovered from old construction projects, diverting it from the landfill. He said some of it, such as the steel that’s encased in cement, isn’t economical to pick out.

The industry isn’t resting on its laurels – it continues to find new ways to lessen its impact on the environment.

MacKinnon says Dofasco in Hamilton is one of the best examples of “a steel mill with a green sense.” He notes the company has reduced all input, not only steel, but reduced its energy and water consumption.

“Dofasco is a real leader in Canada,” MacKinnon says.

Hamilton-based Dofasco is committed to reducing its energy consumption by 10 per cent between 2000 and 2010. To date, it’s achieved nine per cent of that goal, says company spokesman Sean Coffey.

One example is changing production of its steel products so that when a certain size of steel slab is rolled it isn’t allowed to totally cool before it’s molded. “We’re adjusting processes to save energy,” Coffey says.

As a company, he says, “it makes us more cost competitive and it reduces green house gases.”

When it comes to commercial construction, Mackinnon notes there are also now cases where steel beams from a building being torn down are salvaged and reused in a new building going up.

Under Canada Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System (LEED), points are garnered for reusing these beams.

“We find designers are interested in incorporating reused steel,” Mackinnon said. He believes the LEED initiative is a “great thing.”

While noting the steel industry has been a leader in recycling, he said LEED has raised the consciousness of everyone in the need for sustainable construction.

Canadian projects were becoming LEED certified before the Canada Green Building Council was even formed, says CaGBC’s manager of marketing and communications Nancy Grenier.

Some Western projects registered for LEED through the U.S. Green Building Council, she explains.

CaGBC was formed in December 2002 and LEED was introduced in Canada the following spring.

While LEED initially picked up in the western provinces, Grenier says Ontario is “now leading the numbers on LEED registrations and certifications.”

Ontario has 14 certified buildings and 149 registrations; British Columbia has 17 certified buildings and 130 registrations; Alberta has 15 certified and 85 registrations.

LEED is also expanding east and north. New Brunswick has two certified buildings and seven projects registered, while Nunavut has two projects registered.

Grenier said LEED is “evolving.” “It’s definitely about doing the right thing,” she says of the environmental benefits. But Grenier says structurally LEED is resulting in some “creative” designs. As well, she notes, the process is pushing the professionals to work together to find innovative solutions.

“A lot of the buildings are very original.” Structurally, she says, “they’re always raising the bar.”

There are green roofs, more windows that maximize lighting and other natural elements. There are permeable surfaces and rainwater barrels.

“They’re always raising the bar,” Grenier says of the professionals involved.

While initially it was about minimizing the impact on the environment, Grenier says today, there’s a focus on having a “good impact ... contributing to a healthy building.”

Instead of pulling energy from the grid, she says some are looking at “why can’t the building put energy into the grid?”

Recycling Fact Box
•more steel is recycled each year in Canada than aluminum, paper and glass combined
•steel can be recycled time and time again into high quality products, losing none of its basic properties
•the recycling rate of steel in Canada is more than 65 per cent
•since 1990 Canadian steel producers have increased the amount of scrap steel they recycle by more than 26 per cent
•using recycled steel in the production process: conserves raw resources, saves energy and reduces landfill waste
•every type of steel product - from soup cans to cars and bridges - is eventually recycled into other steel products
•even the industry's own production equipment is eventually recycled
•every ton of steel recycled saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore; 1,400 pounds of coal, and 120 pounds of limestone
•each year, steel recycling saves the energy equivalent of the electricity used by one-fifth of Canadian households for a year.

Source: Canadian Steel Producers Association

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