Op-Ed: Steel emissions policies have not forgotten about recycling

Why have steel emissions policies forgotten about recycling? The short answer is that they haven’t. ResponsibleSteel was recently characterized in an article featured in the SMU Executive Newsletter as advocating for steel emissions policies which “discourage recycling.” In fact, ResponsibleSteel sees recycled scrap as playing a critical role in driving steel decarbonization. Recent revisions to the ResponsibleSteel International Standard’s Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas requirements were implemented to incentivize increased recycling rates. But scrap alone will not be sufficient to drive the industry’s decarbonization at the pace and scale we need.

There is a clear relationship between scrap and the emissions intensity of steel production – increase scrap to reduce emissions. Scrap-based electric-arc furnace (EAF) production is around 70% less emissions-intensive than iron-ore-based BF-BOF production (worldsteel, 2023).