Using pipe made of steel is not only safer for people, but it is safer for the environment too.
Steel Is Highly Recyclable
It is a little known fact that steel is the most recycled material on the planet. In 2014, 86 percent of produced steel was recycled which is more than paper, aluminum, plastic and glass combined. This may sound unbelievable but it does make sense when you consider a number of facts about steel:
Steel has amazing metallurgical properties
One of the greatest strengths of steel as a substance is that it suffers from no degradation when it is reused. This means that steel that was used in any capacity can be melted down and used from one product to another with no loss of performance.
Scrap steel is plentiful
There are many sources of steel scrap and the industry has broken them down into three categories:
- Home scrap – This is steel that is recycled from processes that happen within the mill itself. Its a procedure that all steel mills practice as all scrap is reused in some way.
- Prompt scrap – Excess material that is sent out from bulk steel orders and returned to the mill for recycling. Prompt scrap hasn’t been used and is promptly melted down and made into new products.
- Obsolete scrap – This can come from old products, junkyards, even obsolete military equipment can be reused. The material from one scrapped car can produce four steel utility poles.
Steel was one of the first recycled industrial materials
Standard procedure for any steel mill is to recycle the scrap from steel component production. Manufacturers learned early on that steel doesn’t lose any of its strength when it is remelted and used for another purpose. Even contaminants such as paint and corrosion won’t hinder the inherent strength of steel. In 2006, the steel industry recycled enough steel from used cars alone to produce 13.5 million new ones. While two out of every three tons of new steel is produced from recycled materials, it is still necessary to include virgin metal to the process. The reason for this is that many steel vehicles and structures tend to be very durable and have long service lives while the demand for steel continues to grow worldwide.
The steel industry was one of the first to “go green” and it continues to be innovators in efficient, environmentally-friendly production
The steel industry has long recycled the by-products of steel production which includes mill scale, slag, dust, water, and other processing liquids. The industry has developed ways to process these byproducts so that other useful substances such as zinc can be recovered and reused. Almost half of the worlds steel is produced in electric plants that use recycled scrap and produce no CO2 emissions.
Join Pittsburgh Pipe in using sustainable industrial materials
The Pittsburgh Pipe team is proud that we’re doing our part to make our world a cleaner place. We prioritize the use of materials that are easily recyclable and when we are hired to do a project, we prioritize the salvage and reclamation of recyclable materials.
