Environmental Responsibility
Recycling any type of material has environmental benefits. Recycling reduces pollution,
preserves resources and keeps waste out of landfills. But, recycling metal has
additional environmental benefits.
Recycling metal helps reduce the amount of ore that is mined each year. In 2017, the
United States produced approximately 46 million metric tons of iron ore. Yet the U.S. is
far below other countries like China, Australia and Brazil, which are among the world’s
largest producers of iron ore. China alone produced 1.5 billion metric tons in 2014.
The recycling rate of lead in the United States reached 76 percent in 2019. This was a
higher recycling rate than for many other types of metal. The U.S. recycled more than 50
million metric tons of iron and steel in 2019, giving a recycling rate of 47 percent.