Why the future of steel, non-ferrous metals is circular amid climate change

Despite its many advantages for the environment, India's march towards circular economy that focuses on end-of-life recycling of products has been slow

What has climate change got to do with circular economy (CE) that steelmakers and also producers of non-ferrous metals such as aluminium and copper in some countries are practising with slow but steady progress so far? A lot. Steel alone is responsible for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions of all industries. This is in spite of the steel sector achieving significant improvements in efficiency in use of raw materials and energy and scrap recycling over the years. A part of CE, steel scrap recycling through electric arc furnaces (EAF) constituted 28 per cent of the global steel production