Steel is 100 percent recyclable, which means it can be recycled into the same material of the same quality again and again. A steel beam can become another steel beam, or a refrigerator, car door or roof panel. When you buy steel you are buying recycled.  The National Institute of Standards and Technology notes that “steel has become one of the most reliable, most used and most important materials of the age.”

As an advanced engineered material, steel is the material of choice by engineers and architects because of its strong performance characteristics, durability, reliability, versatility in design and consistency as a product. Producing a ton of steel today in North America requires less than half the energy that was needed to produce a ton of steel 40 years ago, resulting in a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.