Not so long ago, people did not pay much attention to Natural Resources. Now, many raw materials are costly and difficult to get. We take these materials for granted such as stainless steel!. But! Before purchasing any material it is nice to ask if this material is good for nature? We’ve already make enough damage to our nature. Is stainless steel environmentally friendly? It really is? Yes! it is!. How? Find out below!
Stainless Steel is used in a different industry also in our homes as well. Do you know that razor blade in your bathroom or the kitchen clock you use to prepare food or construction tools in your garage? At least one tiny part of each of these things is made of stainless steel!
But what makes stainless Steel stand out from other materials? The answer is quite simple: IT LASTS!.
While stainless steel is known for its durability. Also, for its beauty even after many years. Many different materials come and leave their footprints upon the environment. The stainless steel family unites iron with chromium and often with nickel, and molybdenum, and sometimes with other alloying elements. This means that all of these elements are also recycled in the same process.
HOW STAINLESS STEEL IS ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY?
Honestly speaking, stainless Steel has less impact on the environment than one might imagine. In terms of recycling, stainless Steel is a champion. Steel is relatively easy to recycle compared to aluminum, glass, and plastic. It does not deteriorate over time.
Steel also has one of the highest global recycling rates globally, 84 percent in 2014. Furthermost, to break the recycling of Steel into smaller sections, it’s estimated that 95 percent of Steel used in the automobile industry, and 88 percent of Steel used in appliance manufacturing is recycled.
However, Stainless Steel is used in a variety of different products, and one of the most common ones is a core material in construction which accounts for almost 51 percent of all steel used. Transportation also has a large consumption of steel products, and 22 thousand tons of stainless steel is used by the food industry in North America every year; most households have several steel products in their houses, especially in their kitchen.
Luckily, stainless steel is very rarely used for disposable, single-use purposes.
We see that mall with Aluminum, which contains some of the same elements, but they are treated differently. Steel is usually 2.5 times denser than Aluminum and comes with a higher production impact and a higher cost. Stainless Steel is also non-toxic compared to types of plastic that contain toxins and chemical filers, which are released when exposed to heat and end up in our food and skin. However, Steel doesn’t release any, unless treated with coatings like BPA, which is more related to Aluminum, than Steel.
IS STAINLESS STEEL RECYCLABLE?
About 90% of all stainless products are collected and recycled at the end of their useful lives even after decades of use; stainless Steel can be recycled repeatedly and used again without a loss of quality. In fact, there is no such thing as 100% recycled or 100% new Stainless Steel product, but its properties are still the same- 80% of stainless steel produced today is based on scrap, aka “recycling” which allows us access to this material.
50% of the production of Steel is powered by coal, 35% is powered by electricity, 5% is powered by natural gas, 5% is powered by other gases. Furthermore, during the 21st-century production of Steel has doubled from 20 million tons a year to 40 million tons.
Recycling Stainless Steel is a responsible and resource-saving process that reduces greenhouse gases, which can only be good for the environment, our future, and generations to come. In this fragile world, we must choose sustainable materials like Stainless Steel; not only is it beautiful, strong, and durable, but it can be recycled, too! Stainless Steel is environmentally friendly because it can be recycled for lasting value.
