1. Should I specify a high percentage of recycled materials?

Answer: Recycling is good for the planet because it reduces waste and conserves (or substitutes) primary resources; furthermore, recycling generally saves energy and reduces carbon emissions.

Specifying a high recycled content is a good driver for products where the aim is to encourage and establish a market for recycled materials that are otherwise limited, uneconomic or immature. This is not the case for steel, however, which is already highly recycled (over 95% in the case of structural steel).

Specifying steel with a high recycled content drives no positive climate impact at a global level, can have adverse consequences within the broader sustainability context and may create market distortions.

It should be remembered that both major steel production routes use scrap: the primary or blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route up to 30% recycled content and the secondary electric arc furnace (EAF) route 100%.

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