14/07/2008 - Every year, OneSteel is responsible for recycling enough metal to construct almost 50 Sydney Harbour Bridge's.
Due to strong commodity prices and community support, OneSteel expects that number to increase as more and more people play an active role in slowing climate change and helping the environment.
Group Environmental Manager, Vince Chaplin says the recycling operation, has expanded to over 35 depots across Australia, with major shredding plants located in five States.
"Every year, we take abandoned vehicles, kerbside collected white goods, industrial off-cuts, demolition materials and other obsolete goods; and process these into shred which is the raw material from which the steel mill makes new steel," Mr Chaplin explained.
"We have five shredders capable of turning a used vehicle into a fist sized piece of scrap at the rate of around two cars per minute.
"Even before arrival at the recycling depot, we educate our customers as to what we can or won't accept, then we sort, separate and process the scrap to minimise the amount of waste we create.
"We are putting in place procedures to ensure all of the yards operate in an environmentally sustainable way by monitoring the amount of water we use and the energy needed to process scrap to internationally recognised grades for export internationally or supply to local mills," added Mr Chaplin.
Steel is the most recycled material in the world because it can be recycled an infinite number of times without changing its characteristics.
Through its recycling focus, OneSteel delivers enormous services to the community, benefit to the environment and improvement to our quality of life with: the conservation of finite resources such as metallic ores limestone and coal; ridding our bush reserves and waterways from unsightly, unsafe and illegally dumped vehicles and whitegoods; limiting 'climate change' by using less energy in making old metal 'new' again.
When scrap metal is recycled into new metal, OneSteel takes advantage of the 'embodied energy' already in the material. This leads to savings of up to 74% on the emissions of greenhouse gases compared to making the metal originally in a blast furnace; saving 90 % of virgin materials used; the reduction of 40% of water use, 76% of water pollution and 97% of mining waste.
OneSteel recycling, although Australian-based, currently operates in nine countries. It operates in the Pacific, Asia and now North America. Its most recent milestone achievement was the construction of a new mega shredder in Tampa, Florida which became operational in March 2008.
OneSteel actively participates through the Australian Council of Recyclers, ACOR, in helping Australian Governments adopt practical waste strategies that improve recycling rates. For more information, visit www.acor.org.au.
Recycling is the most readily accessible way in which we can all contribute to improving our environment.
