What Happens to Your Recycled Steel: From Scrap to New Construction
Steel is one of the most widely recycled materials on the planet, making it a key player in both economic growth and environmental sustainability.
In the Canadian prairies, steel is essential for sectors like agriculture, energy, and construction. By recycling steel, we reduce the demand for mining new resources and help industries access sustainable materials at a lower cost.
Inland Steel Products plays a critical role in this process, providing collection points and services to ensure that scrap steel is efficiently gathered and repurposed. This blog explores the journey of steel recycling, highlighting the technical steps involved in turning scrap steel into high-quality, reusable materials.
Step 1: Steel Collection and Sorting
The steel recycling process begins with the collection and sorting of scrap metal. Recycling centers like Inland Steel Products serve as key hubs for gathering these materials.
Inland Steel Products offers convenient drop-off services, bin rentals for businesses, and mobile shearing services that allow large scrap metal to be cut down to size directly on-site. These services make metal recycling accessible to everyone, from homeowners doing a bit of decluttering to businesses handling large volumes of scrap. Plus, customers are paid for their scrap metal, making recycling both easy and rewarding.
Once scrap steel is collected it undergoes sorting. At Inland Steel Products, advanced material handling technology and highly trained staff are crucial in sorting steel for further processing. The use of modern scrap analyzing technology allows for accurate grading of materials, ensuring that different types of steel (such as stainless, carbon, or alloyed) are properly separated. This step is essential for maintaining the quality and integrity of the steel as it moves to the melting phase.
Step 2: Melting and Purification
After sorting, the steel is transported to a steel mill. Here, it is placed in a furnace and heated to temperatures exceeding 1,370°C (2,500°F) until it liquefies. During the melting process, impurities are removed to ensure the final product is of the highest quality. Key properties such as carbon content are carefully monitored and adjusted to meet specific industry standards.
The molten steel is then purified using methods like oxygen blowing, which helps reduce the carbon content and improve the steel’s overall quality. The purified steel is poured into molds, forming ingots or slabs that can be processed further into new steel products.
Step 3: Forming and Refining
After the steel has been cast into forms such as slabs, billets, or blooms, these semi-finished shapes undergo further refinement depending on their intended use. This is achieved through processes known as hot rolling and cold rolling.
Hot rolling is a process where the steel is heated above its recrystallization temperature, typically above 1,700°F (927°C), and then passed through rollers to achieve the desired thickness. This makes the steel easier to shape and ideal for large, rough products like beams, plates, or sheet metal. The steel is malleable at this stage, allowing it to be formed into various shapes with less precision but in larger quantities.
Cold rolling, in contrast, takes place at or near room temperature, resulting in a smoother surface and tighter dimensional tolerances. Cold-rolled steel is typically used in applications requiring high precision, such as automotive components, appliances, and products with a high-quality finish.
Step 4: Manufacturing New Products
After the steel has been formed and refined, it moves into the manufacturing phase. Depending on the type and shape, it can be turned into a variety of products, from construction materials like beams and girders to everyday items like tools and appliances.
In sectors like agriculture and energy, recycled steel is particularly valuable. In the prairies, steel is used to manufacture equipment for farming, such as tractors and storage silos, as well as infrastructure for oil and gas operations, including pipelines and rigs. Steel’s strength and durability make it the ideal material for these critical industries.
The Full Circle of Steel Recycling
Steel recycling is essential not only for environmental sustainability but also for reducing carbon emissions and supporting local economies in the prairies. By recycling steel, we significantly cut down on energy consumption and reduce the need for mining, which helps preserve natural landscapes and minimizes carbon emissions.
As a leading metal recycler since 1967, Inland Steel Products has helped prevent the equivalent CO2 emissions from burning over 4.2 billion pounds of coal or charging nearly 500 billion smartphones. By keeping valuable resources in circulation, Inland Steel Products contributes to the conservation of natural landscapes while powering key industries like construction, agriculture, and energy.
RECYCLE YOUR SCRAP STEEL FOR CASH
If you have scrap metal you’d like to recycle for cash contact our team today! We are open Monday to Friday and have six locations across Western Canada with convenient drive-in and drop-off facilities.
