In the interest of sustainable operations, as a company strives to have the minimum impact on the environment and society, profitability may be sacrificed. There is a cost in almost every action that reduces the negative effects of human economic activity. There are sometimes direct economic benefits, other than the improved image of the company and all the side benefits that a responsible producer might have, but there is a threshold point beyond which it no longer makes economic sense to invest in, i.e., energy efficiency measures or water conservation measures.
In the metals production and fabrication business, however, there is an activity that can improve both profitability and sustainability: metals recycling.
There is value in that scrap—enough value to keep the whole collection and recycling chain happy and to incentivise everyone, especially as primary production becomes more expensive and we constantly have to dig deeper to get poorer ores, on an energy—and metal-hungry growing planet.
Unlike many other materials, the value hidden in the metal scrap is enough to ensure that the whole value chain can operate without the need to subsidise scrap collection or penalise waste creation.
For a metal product fabricator like ElvalHalcor, this value does not come automatically. It requires investments, know-how, and effort. You start slowly, with the most obvious: recycle every gram of internally produced scrap. This is relatively easy, as the purity is very high, the content is well-known, you don’t really have to search a lot to find it, and the benefit is immediate and certain. But then you start to expand: scrap from customers, and post-consumer materials. You need to build a network of suppliers, compete against recyclers and other fabricators. And you need the investments that can efficiently handle, separate and remelt this scrap, removing the impurities, while protecting the environment. Last but not least, you need know-how to do all this. Commercial know-how, melting and refining know-how, rolling and extruding know-how. Everything is ensuring that in the end, your final products are going to remain perfect, meeting the specifications of not only the norms, but also of the clients, who are often stricter. And at the same time, minimising internal rejections.
In ElvalHalcor, we have built all this. Slowly, gradually, we have increased the level of externally recycled scrap. Recycling has become one of our focuses. While it demands our resources and efforts, it more than pays for them, with positive results.