Steel & sustainability

Steel and sustainability – an eye to the future every time

Whether on water, on land or in the air, steel is one of modern industry's most important materials – and one of the most sustainable.

Infinitely recyclable

At the end of their long service-lives, steel products become scrap – and thus an important feed material for the production of new steel. Application-orientated recycling assures infinite reuse. Just on half of Germany's annual steel output is produced from scrap. The recycling of around 20 million tonnes of steel scrap annually in Germany – equivalent to eight Eiffel Towers every day! – saves, for example, the mining of 1.5 tonnes of iron ore and 0.65 tonnes of coal, for instance, for every tonne of recycled scrap.

The basis for regenerative energy

Renewable energy sources are our planet's future. Ever scarcer fossil energy, and growing environmental awareness, are powering the expansion of the recovery of energy from regenerative sources. The high-performance material, steel, makes all this possible – the German wind-power industry alone needs almost one million tonnes of steel each year for the construction of new offshore and on-shore wind farms.