Recycling steel helps the environment and the economy. By recycling steel, we save resources like:

• energy
• iron ore 
• coal (transformed into coke, a coal-based fuel)
• limestone.

These non-renewable minerals are found in the soils and rocks of the earth's crust. Fortunately, steel manufacturing does not change the properties of the metals meaning we can recycle steel again and again.

Despite this, Australians recycle less than half of all the steel cans we use. The remaining cans become a wasted resource, lying buried in landfill – this is enough steel to make around 40,000 fridges every year!

What steel can I recycle?

In your recycling bin, you can recycle:

• steel food cans (‘tin’ cans) - rinse out, place the lid inside the can and squash it flat
• steel aerosol cans - remove plastic lids and nozzles from aerosols (do not squash).

Avoid placing these items in your recycling bin:

• gas cylinders
• motor parts
• other large steel items.

These larger items pose health and safety risks to the community and vehicle operators. They can also cause damage to machinery used in the recycling process. See other options for recycling these steel products.

Did you know?

• When we scrap steel, instead of making it from virgin materials, we:
  • save up to 75 percent of the energy
  • reduce air emissions by 86 percent
  • reduce water pollution by 76 percent.
• Every tonne of steel we recycle saves:
  • 1,131 kilograms of iron ore
  • 633 kilograms of coal
  • 54 kilograms of limestone.
• We need around 15,000 steel cans to make 1 tonne of recycled steel.
• We make 3,500 new cans every minute.
• In landfill, steel takes between 100 and 200 years to decompose.

Where does my recycled steel go?

We transport the steel cans and aerosols in your recycling bin to our Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for sorting. At the MRF, a large magnet separates them from other recyclable materials. A machine crushes the cans into bales and we transport them to other companies for reprocessing.

Re-manufacturing facilities de-tin and melt the steel bales in a furnace. From here, the refined steel can be made into products such as car parts, fridges, more steel cans or even washing machines. Your recycled steel could even become part of a shed or house frame.

Where does steel come from?

To make steel we combine iron ore, coke and limestone in a blast furnace, forming molten cast iron. The coke removes carbon from the cast iron and the limestone absorbs impurities in the mixture. The 'slag' floats to the surface, leaving behind pure molten cast iron.

A process called 'Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS)' heats the cast iron to 17,000 degrees celsius and blasts oxygen into the mixture, producing molten steel.

After being poured and cast into slabs, the steel goes to various forming mills. Here slabs are reheated and turned into new products, like steel cans. 

Steel cans are often called tin cans because they have a thin protective coating of tin on one or both sides. Without the layer of tin, the steel cans would rust and react chemically to foods and other products they are designed to preserve.