Recycled steel accounts for 46% of the iron resource of the steel industry in the world
and has generated a new production route, based on the electric arc furnace, that produces
33% of the world steel output. Recycling is fully integrated in the market economy and
has gained experience and technologies that allow 75% of the steel of end of life products
to be effectively recycled. Furthermore, allowing for a modicum of cautions, this recycling
is sustainable, which means that it may be repeated indefinitely, a feature that can be
claimed by few materials. The use of scrap to produce steel requires 75% less energy than
the integrated production route, that means 92% less energy than what is required to
produce the same amount of aluminium. The electric arc furnace also allows the recycling
of zinc, which is easily separated from the galvanized steel sheets used in construction
and automotive industry. A large project federating the contributions of industry and
academia, led by USINOR, has been carried out from 1995 to 2000 to support the sustainable
recycling of steel: the main results of the “Iron Cycle” are reported in this paper.