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Combined cement and steel recycling could cut CO2 emissions

Cement can be reused by including it as a component of steel recycling. This opens the way to an industrial partnership that improves the use of materials and lowers carbon emissions — but only if waste resources are well managed.
  1. Sabbie A. Miller

    1. Sabbie A. Miller is in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA.

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The production of just two materials contributes an estimated 13.5% of global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions each year1. These are cement, the key binding agent in materials such as concrete; and steel, which is widely used for applications ranging from buildings to cars and packaging. The processes used to manufacture these materials require high temperatures and involve chemical conversions that release CO2, hindering efforts to reduce emissions2. Writing in Nature, Dunant et al.3 report a process that could help to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from the production of both cement and steel by integrating recycling pathways for the two materials.

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Nature 629, 1008-1009 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01359-z

References

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  3. Dunant, C. F., Joseph, S., Prajapati, R. & Allwood, J. M. Nature 629, 1055–1061 (2024).

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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