August 1, 2007
Reinforcement steel mills welcome further opportunity to recycle
The British Association of Reinforcement (BAR) has welcomed research by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) that has found there is a potential 70,000 tonnes of scrap steel from recycled tyres that could be used for the production of rebar. However, rather than steel reinforcement bar mills being desperate for scrap metal, BAR pointed out that, the UK is, in fact, net exporter of scrap metal.
WRAP has called upon scrap tyre processors to change their working methods in order to better recover the steel from scrapped car tyres. In the UK, the separation of steel and fibre is limited to processes that produce high-value granulate or powdered rubber. However, WRAP believes that the introduction of processing methods such a pyrolysis, where tyres are burned in a vacuum at high temperatures, and microwaving could produce good quality scrap steel.
Concerns over quality means that currently only one UK steel processing company uses tyre derived steel. WRAP is seeking to encourage more processors to change their working methods and so recover higher quality tyre-derived steel.
“UK steel reinforcement is manufactured from 100% recycled scrap of which we have a plentiful supply. Indeed, the UK is net exporter of scrap metal”, said Steve Elliott, project director of BAR. “However, we welcome the WRAP research that highlights a further potential source of scrap metal and a further way that reinforcement can help UK plc to recycle precious resources”.
