Ferrous metals continue to dominate the $87 billion US scrap industry: ISRI

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):The 2014 annual report published by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc., (ISRI) indicates that the US scrap industry recycles more than 140 million tons of materials every year. The country’s scrap market is now a $87 billion industry, notes ISRI.

According to the report, ferrous scrap turned out to be the most recycled material in the US and worldwide. The US scrap industry processed 77 million metric tons of ferrous scrap. The total value of non-ferrous scrap amounted to $26.3 billion during the year.

Non-ferrous scrap constituted 10% of the total quantity of materials recycled in the US during 2014. The volume of processed non-ferrous scrap totaled 14 million tons. However, by value, non ferrous scrap accounted for nearly half of the scrap recycling earnings. The non-ferrous scrap recycling valued at $43 billion in 2014.

The report states that recovered fiber has emerged as one of the most widely recycled materials in the world. More than three-fourth of US paper mills relied on recovered fiber in their manufacturing process during the year. Paper recycling was valued at $7.7 billion in the US during 2014.

Also, the electronics recycling industry registered stupendous growth over the past years to become a $20.6 billion industry. Nearly 4.4 million tons of used electronic equipment was recycled during the year. The plastic scrap is the fourth largest scrap commodity exported from the US at 1.9 million metric tons.

The largest scrap export destination of the US in 2014 was China. The country imported $8.8 billion worth of scrap material from the US during the year. In second place was Canada with imports of US-born scrap worth $2 billion, followed by Turkey with $1.9 billion.