Did you know that structural steel has the highest recycled content and highest recycling rate of any building framing material? In recognition of Earth Day earlier this week, our April Steel Structure Trivia question is twofold: What is a) the industry average recycled content and b) recycling rate of structural steel produced in the U.S. (in percentage)?
Answer:
The answer to the two-part trivia question is a) 90% and b) 98%. Congratulations to our sole winner, Nep Viajar, a civil/structural engineer with Fluor Corp. in Houston!
Structural steel produced in the U.S. contains an industry average of 90% recycled material. At the end of a building’s life, 98% of all structural steel is recycled back into new steel products with no loss of its physical properties. As such, structural steel isn’t just recycled but “multi-cycled,” as it can be recycled over and over and over again; it is truly a cradle-to-cradle material.
You can test your steel structure knowledge right here on our MSC website on the last Friday of each month, where a new trivia question will be posted to the News section. Our next question will be posted on Friday, May 29 at noon CDT.