Steel.

Eastern Waste. management authority inc.

New Steel.

Steel is made by removing the carbon from cast iron (which is first made from Iron ore, coke and limestone in a blast furnace.) A process called BOS or Basic Oxygen Steelmaking heats cast iron and scrap steel to 1700 degrees celsius by blowing oxygen through the mixture, and the limestone absorbs impurities to form slag.  (Slag is a by product or waste material of the steel making process which is used in cement mix, soils and paving.

The molten steel is poured from the enormous BOS vessel and cast into slabs, cooled then sent to various mills for making different steel products.

At a rolling mill the slabs are re-heated to 1200 degrees or treated with acid for rolling into flat sheets and eventually shaping into cans.

Steel cans are widely used for packaging food and drink, and are sometimes referred to as "tin cans" because they have a thin layer of tin over the steel to prevent them from rusting.

The tin is applied to both sides of the rolled steel sheets by electrolysis, then the large sheets (now called tinlpate) are cut into short lengths and rolled into cans.

Recycling Steel.

Recycling steel involves more than just steel cans. Scrap steel of many kinds is melted in the BOS furnace along with cast iron, and steel cans are usually detinned before they are melted down with other steel.  This is to keep the concentration of tin and other alloys to a minimum within the recycled steel.

Dettining is done by electrolysis, and the tin residue is smelted and reused as tin plate again.

To prepare your steel cans for recycling simply rinse them out, place the lids back inside the can and flatten them. There is no need to take off the labels.

Steel sardine tins, aerosols and Milo, Quik or Ovaltine cans are also recyclable.  In the MRF steel cans are lifted off the conveyor automatically by a large magnet and pressed into bales.

In 1995 the average Australian recovery rate for steel cans was 18%.

Last year the recovery rate grew to 27% which equals 32,000 tonnes of steel cans, coming from 55% of all Australian households.

Each Australian throws away 7kg of small steel products and steel cans each year. Only 25% of the energy used in making a can from iron ore is used in recycling one.