Infinitely recyclable? Scraps and disarticulations in the steelmaking green transition

Steel is potentially infinitely recyclable, and the ‘green transition’ in this sector (which accounts for 7% of global CO2 emissions) heavily relies on the dismissal of old polluting blast furnaces in favour of electric arc furnaces (EAFs), which are fed with steel scraps. Steelmaking is considered a strategic capacity for states, for economic but also security and military reasons. At the same time, due to global overcapacity, steelmaking is becoming increasingly less profitable, especially for plants based in high-income countries. The combined pressure of ecological, security and economic challenges makes this scrap-based ‘green’ transition in steelmaking appear both virtuous and rational. Informed by the disarticulations approach combined with the insights of feminist IPE and critical literature on waste, this article argues that the idea of infinite recyclability of steel scraps in fact conceals unequal logics of exclusion and inclusion that operate across material, ecological and human dimensions of the ‘greening’ of the steel industry. The logic of inclusion is manifested in the recycling and downcycling of resources, including human resources, while the logic of exclusion refers to the scrapping of those parts of steel production that are perceived not to have value: from the blast furnaces to the land they sit on; and from steelmaking jobs to the identity and landscapes of steel towns.