Assessing the Impacts of International Trade on National Steel Recycling from a Consumption Perspective Using a...

Steel recycling can reduce reliance on natural resources and CO₂ emissions associated with steel production. A high scrap input into the steelmaking process does not necessarily imply high "scrap content" in domestically consumed products. International trade in steel and steel-containing products with varying "scrap contents" may significantly influence national recycled content in steel consumption. However, existing metal recycling metrics focus on collection and production perspectives and overlook the effects of trade on recycled content in national consumption. This study aims to understand how international trade affects the status of national steel recycling and to identify the factors that constrain consumption-based recycled content (CB-RC) across countries. We introduce a CB-RC metric to account for trade effects across the fabrication stage in national recycled content. A new methodology was developed to estimate CB-RC and to trace the use of primary and secondary resources across fabrication stages and countries using a multiregional material flow model. Our results show a global convergence in national CB-RC (10-54%) versus pronounced disparities in production-based recycling input rates (8-99%). This convergence is driven by trade in low-recycled-content products, indicating shifts in the burden of primary resource use across borders. Furthermore, heavy imports of low-recycled-content products substantially constrain CB-RC in most countries.