Virgin Steel vs Recycled steel

Today, it is estimated that the global steel industry used about  2 billion tonnes of iron ore, 1 billion tonnes of metallurgical coal and 575 million tonnes of steel scrap to produce about 1.7 billion tonnes of crude steel. It is not as clean as you think it is. 

The iron and steel industry is responsible for about 4% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions in Europe, and 9% worldwide, due to the massive use of coal. Steel production is one of the most energy-consuming and CO2 emitting industrial activities in the world.

Why is it important?

Virgin steel is manufactured in steel mills which use basic oxygen furnaces (BOF’s), which burn coal to melt iron-ore to extract the iron. Most of the inputs to a BOF are mined or raw materials. Therefore when you choose to buy virgin steel, the carbon footprint can be up to five times greater than recycled steel. 

Iron ore is the key issue when producing steel - The mining of iron ore is highly energy intensive and causes air pollution in the form of nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide from diesel generators, trucks and other equipment.

This means that production of steel is the most energy-consuming and CO2-emitting industrial activity in the world.

One way to reduce the industry's emission and resource consumption, you can buy products like ours which use recycled steel. By buying one of our bottles you save 392g of iron ore.