Recycling of end of life products containing ferrous components - General aspects

Recycling capital goods containing iron is a practice that dates back to the origins of metallurgy. It is justified by the need to save effort and energy, by shortening the steelmaking cycle.

This practice has led to the development of a secondary iron and steel production process, based on the smelting of scrap in an arc furnace or cupola furnace, which is less energy-intensive and requires less capital investment than the primary process, based on the reduction of iron oxides contained in ores.

The recycling of ferrous products is favored by two essential characteristics: their simple chemical composition, which makes them easy to melt and allows the recycling operation to be repeated many times, and their sensitivity to electromagnetic attraction, which makes them easy to separate from other materials.

Starting from the observation that there is, in a way, a natural market for recycling the ferrous parts contained in capital goods, we address the various aspects here, taking into account the new data constituted by regulations on waste and products reaching the end of their life, as well as by new imperatives in terms of quality, energy savings, raw material savings and reduced discharges, particularly in CO ₂ .

In this article on the recycling of capital goods containing iron, which precedes two others [M 7 060] and [M 7 061] , we present the general aspects of recycling, the life cycle of products and consumer goods containing steel, the justifications and motivations, the main implementation channels, all illustrated by a few figures.

Technological aspects are covered in article [M 7 060] , while economic aspects and development prospects are addressed in article