Steel is easy to sort from the domestic waste stream because it is magnetic. Machines can sort domestic waste metals in large volumes before it is reprocessed. However, it is harder to recover from products like vehicles and electrical goods as these have to be dismantled first which is time consuming and labour intensive.

Once the steel has been sorted and baled it is:

• Put into the furnace where molten iron is added.
• Oxygen is then blasted into the furnace which heats up to around 1700 degrees centigrade.
• The liquid metal is poured into a mould to form big slabs which are then rolled into coils.
• These coils are used to make all sorts of steel products such as bikes, cars, bridges, paperclips or even new food and drink cans.