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Time and time again we are asked “How much recycled steel goes onto the manufacturing process of your cladding systems?” and the short answer to this is, it varies continuously. In order to fully appreciate the answer, a little understanding of the steel industry is required.
Steel is the most recycled material in the world and recycled steel is used in the manufacture of all new steel. So it is natural to ask the question “What is the recycled content of my steel?” on the assumption that steel with a higher proportion of recycled content might be more ‘sustainable’. But for steel this may not be true.
The concept of recycled content is a useful metric to stimulate economies of scale around recycling of materials which may otherwise be incinerated or land-filled, however this is not the case for steel. Steel has been recycled for over 150 years and the recycling process and infrastructure is efficient and economical without any added stimulus. Scrap steel is valuable, so wherever it can be recovered it is, and very little steel ever goes to waste.
A 2012 Eurofer study supports this and outlines the following recycling and reuse rates:
Despite recycled content being an inappropriate measure of the sustainability of steel, certain building certification schemes which cover multi-materials (for example Leadership in Environmental Energy & Design (LEED) certification of buildings) require information on this metric. In such cases, and to prevent inefficiencies, it is best to take a holistic view of recycled content. This means taking as broad a view of recycled content as possible such as a European steel making average (as below). Of course if the source of the steel is known and purchase confirmed then specific recycle rates for a producer can be used.
In the European steel industry as a whole, recycled scrap steel accounts for 56% of total steel making, being made up of 32% pre-consumer and 24% post-consumer scrap. For purchases of European steel, we recommend using a recycled content figure of 56% which reflects the total industry position and prevents uneconomic distortions of the market.
Only by using the approach presented above, and by designing steel-based products to ensure efficient recovery of steel at end-of-life, will the steel recycling infrastructure remain highly efficient – ensuring that steel continues to be economically recycled and that impact to end-users of steel are kept as low as possible.
We recommend that this document is read in its entirety and simple extraction of recycle and reuse rates is not undertaken due to the potential unintended consequences of attempting to drive increased recycle content.
All steel manufactured by Tata Steel’s UK operations contains recycled steel. This is typically between 15 and 20% as an average across all operations. This is optimised for existing asset configuration. For an annual period to July 2024 Tata Steel UK recycled content was 17%. A breakdown of the scrap by source shows that ~9% was internal pre consumer scrap. The remaining ~8% was externally sourced commercial scrap. As the exact mix of the scrap cannot be fully determined it is not possible to define this as pre/post-consumer scrap per the LEED v4 definition.
In order to use the above recycled content figures within any life cycle assessment or input to a building certification scheme credit assessment, it is essential to ensure that 100% of steel supply is sourced from Tata Steel UK – if there are any doubts that steel is not sourced from Tata Steel UK supply then, the industry wide average must be used to avoid potential inconsistencies.
With regards to the CA Therma-quilt mineral fibre insulation that is utilised as an integral component of the CA Twin-Therm® and CA River-Therm® building envelope systems, this is manufactured from glass. Although the exact quantity of recycled content will vary slightly from batch to batch, the use of recycled glass in this process is always in excess of 80%.
The manufacturing of all pre-finished steel and CA Therma-quilt insulation for use within the CA Twin-Therm® building envelope systems are covered by independent ISO 14001 and BES 6001 certification.
Company wide, CA Group are continually reviewing our manufacturing processes with regards to how we package finished goods, consistently reviewing our packaging methods across the business and the impact this has on the environment and cost of delivery without degrading the quality and safety of our products.
In 2019 a specific ‘Project Packaging’ team was set up to tackle the issues associated with single use plastics and the use of timber within our packaging processes. Over this time, we have successfully manged to reduce the amount of plastic in our gutter packaging by as much as 67% and implemented new packaging specifications throughout the department.
In addition to this, the team have effectively managed to reduce the use of timber by 33% and have replaced all metal strapping with strapping made from recycled materials, which could be recaptured and further recycled after use. All timber utilised by CA Group is responsibly sourced and FSC certified. With regards to the plastic material that is still being used to wrap our finished goods for transport, our plastic suppliers have advised us that they re-insert up to 50% of recycled material back into their manufacturing processes. In addition to this, 92% of all waste that is produced at our manufacturing facility is separated and recycled.
A Life Cycle Analysis should take into account the following modules of a declared Environmental Product Declaration, and adopt a ‘cradle to cradle’ approach in order to encourage the use of recyclable products and ensure materials are returned into the manufacturing process as a circular economy.
A Life Cycle Analysis should take into account the following modules of a declared Environmental Product Declaration, and adopt a ‘cradle to cradle’ approach in order to encourage the use of recyclable products and ensure materials are returned into the manufacturing process as a circular economy.
Our in-house team of construction experts are on hand to help with CA Group product information and any aspect of design, specification, application and performance-related queries you may have.
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