Nine European associations active in the construction industry have recently come together to promote the use of recycled metals in sustainable construction.
Commenting on the new initiative which is called METALS FOR BUILDINGS, Gordon Moffat, general director of the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries (EUROFER) said, "Today's virgin metals are tomorrow's recycled metals," adding that "metallic materials can be recycled 100 percent without losing their properties, thus allowing to minimize the impact on natural resources." He went on to say that the use of metals should be considered as an investment, rather than just consumption, while the collection of scrap metals from demolition/renovation operations is a thriving activity, thanks to the relatively high economic value of recovered material.
Meanwhile, Patrick de Schrynmakers, general secretary of the European Aluminium Association, said, "At the moment, the criteria and standards adopted by the EU refer mainly to the amount of recycled material contained within metal products, a very common indicator which, however, is not sufficient to measure the savings made on resources. In fact, some materials can have a high recycled content but cannot be recycled further; otherwise they would lose important physical and chemical properties. Metals, by contrast, can be recycled to infinity without compromising their intrinsic characteristics."