Recycling Steel

According to the Steel Recycling Institute, Steel is North America's most recycled material. More steel is recycled than paper, aluminum, plastic and glass combined.

When you recycle steel it goes through the following process.

1. Separation. Magnetic belts are used to sort through recycled material and attract everything made of metal.

2. Detinning. Some steel is covered in layers of tin. Those layers need to be removed and recycled separately. Detinning is usually done by a specialized steel company.

3. Melting. The collected recycled steel is melted in a furnace and pour into casters. Then, those casters are rolled into flat sheets.

4. Reformation. From sheet form the steel can be converted back into usable steel products, like cans, car parts and construction materials.

What's really great about recycling steel is that you can do it over and over. It never loses strength or quality.