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Steel cans – The market for recycling
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In Brazil, as in the rest of the world, the market for steel scrap is pretty solid, as the steel industry needs scrap to make new steel. 60% of the world’s steel is manufactured from scrap, making every steel plant a veritable center for recycling. In 2002, the steel industry in Brazil produced 3.3 million tonnes, with 5 million tonnes of steel scrap consumed. If we take into account the fact that 710,000 tonnes of steel sheets were produced in 2003 for the steel packaging industry, we can conclude that Brazil already has the capacity to absorb 100% of the steel cans produced.
Steel is mostly used in packaging for domestic oil (64%), powdered milk (62%), condensed milk (83%), paints and varnishes (89%), vegetables and fruit (81% - fruit, olives, vegetables, palm hearts), tomato extract (67%) and tomato sauce (66%). This market has sales of R$ 20 billion and the country consumes around 25 billion cans and components per year, accounting for 6% of the domestic packaging market.
The principal market associated with the recycling of steel is the steel industry, where the scrap is melted and turned into new products or new sheet steel. The increase in the separated collection of this material has stimulated demand for jobs and separation equipment, such as electromagnets.
In Brazil, just 5% of cans for drinks are made of steel, with one billion being manufactured per year for the manufacturers of beer, soda and juices.
In Spain and South Africa, 100% of drinks cans are made from steel. Germany (95%) and other European countries (52%) and Asia (54%) also use steel to make their drinks cans.
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How much is
recycled?
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In 2003, 47% of steel cans consumed were recycled. This percentage has been increasing thanks to the expansion of municipal curbside collection programs, and, principally, to the RECICLAÇO program, a company created specially to encourage the collection of steel drinks cans (soda and beer). This initiative has allowed the packaging of carbonated drinks to reach a recycling rate of 78%, a figure that has been independently audited.
In the United States, 60% of tin-plated sheet steel was recycled and in Japan 86%. Every year, 385 million tonnes of steel are recycled around the world.
Note that if we also take into account steel recycled from old cars, household electronics and building waste, that is, all the segments using steel, and add them to the indices for the recycling of steel cans, we will see that Brazil recycles around 70% of all the steel produced in the country. |
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Knowing the material
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Steel cans made from sheet metal, known as tin-plated sheet steel, are highly resistant and inviolable. They are made from iron and a small amount of tin (0.2%) or chrome (0.007%) – materials that protect against oxidization and conserve the food inside for over two years. When recycled, the steel returns to the marketplace as automobiles, tools, girders for the construction industry, wire, square iron bars, kitchen utensils and other products, including new cans.
In Brazil, around one million tonnes of steel cans are consumed annually, equivalent to four kilos per person. In the United States, annual consumption is 10 kilos per person per year.
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What is the weight of this waste in the garbage?
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Steel cans account for 2.5% of the weight of domestic waste in large Brazilian cities. In the US, the material accounts for 1.3% of urban domestic waste. |
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Its history
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Steel was one of the first materials in the world to be recycled. In ancient times, Roman soldiers collected swords, knives and shields abandoned on the battlefield and sent them to be fashioned into new arms. Legend holds that the can was invented at Napoleon’s request, so that his soldiers could take their rations to battle without having to worry about conservation. Others say that canned food appeared in England in 1800. In the United States, efforts at collecting cans for recycling began in the seventies, with the first recycling programs. In Brazil, the Program for Giving Value to Metal Packaging (Prolata) was created in 1992, with the aim of stimulating the consumption, collection and recycling of the material. In 2003, with the creation of ABEAÇO – the Brazilian Association of Steel Packaging, Prolata’s activities were incorporated into ABEAÇO’s Environmental Committee’s activities. In 2002, two initiatives were added to the work of Prolata/ABEAÇO, the first, Reciclaço, a company belonging to the CSN steel group and created to encourage the collection and recycling of steel drinks cans, and the second, the CSN “Steel Packaging and the Environment” Program, which aims to explore potential in the environmental criteria of steel packaging, through the development of community research and projects. |
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And the limitations?
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Contamination
Cans should be free of the impurities contained in refuse, principally earth and other metallic materials, such as aluminum. Organic material creates more slag in the smelting ovens.
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Strict Specifications for the Raw Material
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Steel scrap should be compacted into bales by the scrap dealers, before being delivered to the smelting industry. It can be used in any steel manufacturing process (integrated or non-integrated steel mills) with the advantage that its composition (including the percentage of tin) does not interfere with the recycling process. |
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What you should know...
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Reduction at source
In the United States, a can is 40% lighter today than in 1970, thanks to technological advances in soldering and folding the steel. The amount of tin has fallen from 9.5g/m2 in 1975, to 5g/m2 in 1997, representing a drop of 40% in the use of this material as well. In Brazil, cans are produced with a thickness varying from 0.14 to 0.38 millimeters.
Composting
Cans interfere with the composting of refuse for the production of organic fertilizer. A can only biodegrades through the action of time and nature.
Incineration
Due to their being magnetic, they can be separated mechanically by electromagnets either before or after incineration. If they are incinerated at temperatures above 1,500 degrees centigrade, the cans undergo intense oxidization and return to their natural stage of iron-ore.
Landfill
Steel cans that are not recycled, rust. They decompose into their natural state of ferrous oxide.
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The recycling cycle
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Back to the origins
After being separated manually from the rest of the garbage, or else by electromagnet separators, the steel cans have to go through a cleaning process with sieves to remove earth and other contaminants. They are then compacted into bales to facilitate transport by truck to the recycling plants. Upon arrival at the smelting plant, the scrap goes into electric or oxygen ovens, heated to 1,550 degrees centigrade. After reaching melting point and a smoking liquid state, the material is molded into slugs and metal plaques, which will be cut into steel sheets. It only takes a day to reprocess the scrap and transform it once again into sheet steel for use in various industrial sectors – from automobile manufacturing plants to conserve canning factories. The material can be recycled an infinite number of times, without loss or damage to quality. Medium-size steel plants equipped with electric ovens process the scrap at less cost than conventional steel mills. |
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