A planetary atlas of material flowsOpening this view…
Start with an everyday object or material.
Jump directly to a material, regional account or named facility.
From iron ore and scrap to the steel in our buildings, vehicles and tools. Explore the furnaces, steelworks and recovery systems behind it.
Steelmaking routes use ore-based iron, scrap, or combinations of these feedstocks.
Ore processing and steelmaking generate different residue streams.
Steel is shaped into products such as cans, vehicles and structural components.
A building can retain its steel for decades before demolition.
Packaging collection, vehicle dismantling and building deconstruction are different systems.
A local packaging result does not describe all industrial steel.
Ferrous materials are separated and graded so they can become useful steelmaking feedstock.
Other materials and contaminants need separate treatment.
Scrap re-enters metal production. The scrap trade identifies border crossings, not the receiving steelworks in every case.
Source data here do not establish a closed loop for an individual item.
Explore the local operations and regional systems that collect, transform and recover this material.
Checking available records…
It establishes a reported cross-border trade in the scrap category. The receiving plant, actual treatment and residual disposal require additional evidence.