The stats on steel recycling in Europe for twenty fourteen are still being processed but the figures for twenty thirteen are already in, and it’s all smiles. The old continent has always had one of the highest, if not the highest steel recycling rate in the world. The rate has been gradually climbing over the last number of decades, to reach its highest value ever in twenty thirteen – the staggering seventy five percent! This might be only a notch up from the seventy four percent steel recycling rate in twenty twelve, but on an overall scale, these figures are nothing short of impressive.
Recycling of steel in Europe might be at an all-time high, but the same can’t be said about other recycling streams as unfortunately rates in those appear to be somewhat stagnant. Data provided by the Association of European Producers for Steel for Packaging (APEAL) have been supplied for analysis to watchdog organisation Eunomia. Organisation experts have attested that the positive figures in steel recycling across Europe were expected, and happen to be the result of more than twenty years of improvement of steel recycling legislation, practices and policies. Manufacturers across the European continent have invested their collective effort in development of more efficient steel rubbish removal practices, better separation and extraction methods, less energy intensive recycling techniques etc.
The current aim is for all steel manufacturers across the European continent to reach a voluntary recycling rate of eighty percent by the year two thousand twenty, which is when the Europe Twenty Twenty Initiative is up for review. Industry specialists say that there is still work to be done in terms of policies and regulation of steel recycling on a Union level, but the European Parliament seems to be taking matters seriously and taking steps in the right direction.
What does steel recycling actually mean when put in perspective? Since numbers are the universal language so to speak, here are some hard figures on steel recycling:
- Recycling of steel (particular steel packaging) saves one and a half times its weight in CO2 emissions;
- One ton of recycled steel saves the planet more than two tons of raw materials needed to produce the same amount of new steel;
- For years now, steel packaging is the most recycled material across the European Union;
- Steel packaging is one of the most easily supplied sources of recyclable material as steel is present in more than fifty percent of all product packaging;
- In twenty thirteen three quarters (or seventy five percent) of all steel and packaging in Europe was recycled;
To put the whole steel recycling challenge in perspective – through adequate improvements and developments on both technical and legislative level, Europe has managed to triple its steel packaging recycling rate in the last twenty years. However, at the moment there is one issue for steel manufacturers and recyclers in Europe, and that is the scrapping of the Circular Economy Package by the European Commission at the start of twenty fifteen. It is expected though for authorities to come up with a suitable legislative replacement very soon.