We close cycles

Scrap recycling, steel production, and further processing of the steel at one site facilitate closed cycles that help the environment.

Scrap is the foundation for our excellent products. We use 100% scrap metal in the electric arc furnace to make steel to order – the German industry average is a scrap rate of 44%. We also think in terms of optimised product and energy cycles and are constantly improving them – from the efficient reuse of by-products such as waste heat and slag, to logistics.

100% scrap as the cycle base

We use 100% scrap to produce steel in our electric arc furnace with no loss in quality. This way, we’re not only able to fill our furnace with an optimal charge, but also save 1.3 tonnes of CO2 with every ton of scrap. Our steel improves its carbon footprint with every recycle, especially considering we even use return scrap such as swarf, crop ends and other cutting waste to produce climate-friendly steel. This reduces our waste by 10%.

Saving resources, reducing waste

We make efficient further use of by-products such as slag. For example, we reprocess slag for road construction, railway construction, or steel production. Filter dusts are processed by external suppliers and used in production for other industries. This way, we return materials such as zinc to the economic cycles, where they are reused. We also make further use of process water from production, for example for slag cooling. All of this saves resources and reduces waste

Further utilising waste heat

For us, waste heat isn’t a waste product at all; it’s an energy supplier. We make further use of it in steel production, heating buildings, and hot water preparation. This covers a large part of our overall energy requirements and, in turn, saves several tonnes of emissions. We also feed the waste heat into the district heating network for Georgsmarienhütte’s public utilities. For this, we’ve been honoured by the German Energy Agency (dena) as a “beacon of energy-efficient waste heat utilisation”.