What's more, all new steel products made from recycled steel can be recycled again at the end of their useful lives. Used steel cans are recycled into part of a guard rail, which may one day be recycled into an appliance. And an infrastructure of ferrous scrap processors exists to prepare all types of steel products for recycling. Processors prepare and ship steel scrap to steel mills and foundries for remelting into new steel. Steelmaking is an inherent recycling process Recycling is an integral part of the steelmaking process because the use of steel scrap lowers the total cost of producing new steel.
Steel mills use one of two types of furnaces to make new steel.
Both furnaces recycle old steel products into new steel, but each is used to create different products for varied applications. The first, the basic oxygen furnace uses a minimum of 25 percent steel scrap to make new steel. This furnace produces the steel used in flat-rolled steel products, like cans, appliances and automobiles. The other type of steelmaking furnace, the electric arc furnace, melts virtually 100 percent steel scrap to make new steel. This steel is used primarily to make products that are long shapes, like steel plate, rebar and structural beams.