This paper presents a material flow analysis of iron and steel within the economic system of the UK. Information on the amounts of iron and steel going into different groups of goods, together with values for their estimated life times, have enabled modelling of the yearly release of iron and steel from the use phase in the form of end-of-life scrap. By comparing modelled generation of scrap with actual scrap consumption in the UK, we obtain estimates of accumulation/leakage of iron and steel scrap in the UK. The model indicates that as much as 50 percent of the scrap that was potentially available in 1999 as end-of-life scrap has either been accumulated within the economic system or been lost. The analysis suggests that it is in the smaller consumption groups such as mechanical & electrical engineering and domestic appliances that the largest gains can be made in increasing the recovery.
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