2016Yearbook_Flipbook

2016

THE I SR I SCRAP YEARBOOK

How Is Scrap Consumed?

Scrap dealers and brokers sell scrap commodities to a wide range of consumers at home and abroad such as paper mills, plastic manufacturing plants, steel mills, foundries, copper wire and brass mills, secondary aluminum smelters, and other customers. Manufacturers prize scrap as a raw material input due in part to the cost and energy savings associated with using scrap. For example, domestic steelmakers rely on iron and steel scrap to make roughly two out of every three pounds of steel produced in the U.S. Producers of copper and copper alloy products are also heavily reliant on scrap. According to figures from the U.S. Geological Survey, the contained copper provided by old and new copper scrap accounted for nearly 47 percent of total U.S. apparent copper consumption in 2015. Metal scrap can practically be melted and re-melted an infinite number of times to make products and parts for everything from cell phones to automobiles, bridges, and buildings. Manufacturers also rely on scrap commodities to produce a wide array of nonmetallic goods including

new paper and cardboard products, plastic containers, playground surfaces, and much more. And while overseas markets have been a growing source of

demand for U.S. scrap, it’s worth remembering that most of the scrap that gets processed in the U.S. is also consumed domestically. According to ISRI estimates, in 2015 over 70 percent of the more than 130 million metric tons of recovered paper, plastic, rubber, metal, glass, textiles, and other scrap commodities that were processed in the U.S. was consumed at home. As scrap recyclers strive to meet rising consumer demands and improve their operational, quality, environmental, health and safety, and management systems, the use of third-party certifications has been on the rise.

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INSTITUTE OF SCRAP RECYCLING INDUSTRIES, INC.