Time-dependent material flow analysis of iron and steel in the UK Part 2. Scrap generation and recycling

This paper presents an analysis of the use of iron and steel in the UK and explores how much of the iron and steel is recycled when it becomes obsolete after use. The first part of this paper series investigated production and consumption trends of iron and steel in the UK, whereas this paper focuses on scrap generation and recycling. Information on the amounts of iron and steel going into different groups of goods, together with values for their estimated lifetimes, have enabled modelling of the annual release of iron and steel from the use phase in the form of end-of-life scrap. This is an application to material flow accounting of the theory of residence time distributions used routinely in chemical reaction engineering. By comparing modelled generation of scrap with actual scrap consumption in the UK, we obtain estimates of loss or accumulation of iron and steel scrap in the UK. The model indicates that as much as 30% of the scrap that was potentially available in ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1483 689072; fax: +44 1483 686671. E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Jackson). 0921-3449/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2006.08.007 Please cite this article as: J. Davis et al., Time-dependent material flow analysis of iron and steel in the UK, Resources, Conservation and Recycling (2006), doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2006.08.007 ARTICLE IN PRESS RECYCL-1880; No. of Pages 23 2 J. Davis et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling xxx (2006) xxx–xxx 2001 as end-of-life scrap has either been accumulated within the economic system or lost to landfill. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.