Steel is at the centre of the circular economy. Steel is a permanent material – this is to say, it can be recovered and recycled endlessly, without losing its essential properties.
Steel production, use and recycling naturally follows a circular pattern, with steel products returning to the cycle once their service life has ended.
The large volumes of steel produced in Europe every year – 160 million tonnes – are made with large amounts of scrap steel. 56% of EU steel is made from scrap, with around 100 million tonnes of scrap steel recycled every year.
In 2020, the EU published a Circular Economy Action Plan. This Action Plan is an important step in developing a truly circular economy in Europe.
Brussels, 13 December 2023 – The exclusion of ferrous scrap from the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) and specific provisions in the Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR) recently agreed risk jeopardising sufficient supply and quality of this valuable secondary material, which is essential for the decarbonisation of the steel industry. Despite some progress made to improve recycling and export criteria, an important way forward to ensure green steel and resilient cleantech value chains made in Europe is to recognise ferrous scrap as secondary strategic raw material and include it in all relevant legislation, says the European Steel Association.
Joint industry statement
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