Narrator: Steel is one
of the most recycled materials on Earth.
It beats out plastic, glass, and copper.
More than half of it gets melted down
and reused over and over.
So if it's easy to repurpose,
why is steel a major source of pollution?
We visited a company experimenting
with ways to clean up the industry using worldwide waste.
Humans invented steel thousands of years ago
when they figured out that mixing iron
with carbon made a stronger material.
Today, there are more than 3,000 types of steel,
with other elements mixed in for different uses.
This Australian company has been recycling steel
for over a century.
Trucks deliver about 1,000 metric tons
of presorted scrap here every day.
It comes from cars, refrigerators, washing machines,
demolished buildings, and even old mattress springs.
Powerful magnets layer different types of steel
depending on what's needed for each batch.
From here, the scraps go to the furnace,
where they melt in about an hour.
This is what is supposed to make recycled steel cleaner
than new steel.
There's no need to mine new iron.
And these furnaces use less than half as much energy
as the ones that make new steel.
Michael: We use electricity, much like a large welder,
to melt that steel.
Narrator: Other processes adjust
the steel's chemistry and strength.
Molds shape the liquid steel into bars.
The company sells some of these,
but most are forged into a ball shape.
They're sold to copper and gold mining companies,
which use them inside giant rotating mills to crush ore.
Molycop says all of its products are made
from 93% recycled materials,
though Insider could not independently verify this.
We want to push that as close as we can to 100%.
Narrator: About a third of the steel made
around the world each year comes from scrap.
Nearly all the rest is new steel created from iron ore.
Recycling is better for the planet
and is usually cheaper.
So why are we still making so much of it from scratch?
Because the world needs more steel
than scraps can provide.
Michael: That's really limited by scrap steel supply.
The total demand for steel means
that we'll still have to mine iron ore.
Narrator: In 2020, the industry churned out
almost 2 billion metric tons.
About half of that went into buildings and bridges
that won't become scrap for a long time.
And scrap doesn't always end up in the hands of recyclers.
In 2018, 7% of all the waste sent to US landfills
was made of iron or steel.
Plus, some experts say that purely scrap-based steel
can't be used for everything.
The main problem with scrap
is that you always have some impurities in there,
which reduce the strength.
Narrator: With demand for steel on the rise,
it's estimated that within the coming decades,
at least half of it will still have
to be made from iron ore.
That's a big issue for the climate.
Steel is responsible for about a quarter
of all industry-related greenhouse gas emissions.
Most of that comes from cooking it up from scratch,
but recycled steel is part of the problem, too.
Melting scrap in a furnace uses a lot of electricity.
Since 2020, Molycop's plant has gotten
over half its power from renewable solar and wind.
Michael: Supporting the generation of renewable energy seemed
a natural step to make and the right thing to do.
Narrator: But even recycling usually requires coke,
which is coal that's been baked for hours
until it's almost pure carbon.
You can't make steel without carbon,
but mining coal and turning it into coke
also uses lots of energy and creates air pollution.
Molycop is looking for other options.
It partnered with scientists
at the University of New South Wales
to study alternatives like old rubber
and plastic.
We get to see our ideas being brought to life
in an industrial setting.
Narrator: The researchers have used Molycop's plant
to test out replacing coke with briquettes made
with plastic waste,
though using them would still release a smaller amount
of carbon dioxide.
Michael: Our objective is, how do we replace all of it
with material that would otherwise end up in landfill?
It gives hope and that sense of positivity that together,
we can actually solve these kinds of challenging problems.
Narrator: But these ideas are still in the testing phase.
So for now ...
Michael: Here at Molycop, we consume
about 4,000 to 5,000 tons of coke each year
in the steelmaking process.
Narrator: It sounds like a lot,
but making new steel from iron
can use at least 20 times more coke than recycled steel.
Ultimately, cleaning up steel
will require updates to hundred-year-old recycling methods.
Michael: We're the oldest operating steelmaker in Australia,
and we want to be around for another 100 years.
And we'll do that through being a sustainable
and responsible steelmaker.