High-Quality Recycling and Utilization of China’s Steel Scrap Resources in the Context of Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality

Steel scraps are renewable resources and indispensable iron resources for the iron and steel industry. In the context of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, it is crucial to reconstruct the technology system for steel scrap recycling and utilization and innovate the management mode of steel scrap resources, so as to fundamentally crack the bottleneck of high-quality recycling and utilization of steel scraps for the green and low-carbon transformation of the iron and steel industry. This study analyzes the development status of the global steel scrap industry by comparison, predicts the changing trend of raw steel output and steel scrap resources in China, and proposes the possible existence of full steel scrap smelting in China around 2060. Moreover, the development directions of standardization, informatization, digitalization, and intelligentization of the steel scrap industry are summarized. The pressing problems and challenges regarding steel scrap recycling and utilization in China are systematically sorted out in terms of standards and institutional system, precise classification and recycling, material design based on extended producer responsibility (EPR), and digital identity parsing. On this basis, a new “4F5Z” pattern is innovatively proposed for the high-quality recycling and utilization of steel scrap resources, and its organizational framework and implementation strategy are clearly given. Specifically, the EPR system should be implemented in a coordinated manner toward a possible era of full steel scraps and from the aspects of the full life cycle, full production process, and full industrial chain (“4F”) of steel materials, thus to realize the sorted management, recycling, and reuse of steel scrap resources. Meanwhile, the digitalization, informatization, labelling, and networking of full production process management should be strengthened and gradually transition to the robotization of high-quality steel scrap dismantling and recycling (“5Z”). Furthermore, to provide a solid guarantee for the full implementation of the “4F5Z” pattern, we propose the following suggestions: (1) improving the system, technology, and management for EPR implementation in the iron and steel industry, (2) strengthening the construction of a standards system for the steel scrap industry, (3) strengthening the digital labelling and analysis of the entire industrial chain and the whole life cycle of iron and steel materials, and (4) reinforcing the sorted collection, recycling, and reuse of steel scraps in key industries.