Lubricating the recycling machine

When introducing a new control paradigm in industry or society you have to accept that it is an evolutionary process where people, methods and processes must develop simultaneously. This takes time. The recycling of materials has been studied intensely for the last ten years using different approaches to material flow analyses, MFAs. They have provided a good view of the magnitude of material flows but their use has been limited by a lack of relevant data. In the case of recycling, data must be acquired from the practitioners of the trade. For this to occur, the value of the output for them and for society must be proven and visualized. This paper is based on a MFA model developed at KTH for steel flows in Sweden (part of the Swedish environmental research program, the “Steel-Eco-Cycle”) The aim of the work reported on here has been to initiate the process of motivating better sampling of data in the industry and society for performing MFAs. The KTH model is based on a product-to-product approach for steel, describing the recycling machine. Data is presented in a simplified model for Sweden with total figures and figures per capita. Areas where improvement can be made are identified and ways to “lubricate” the recycling machine are discussed. The main objective is to provide a way of describing flows that can be of significant use to recyclers and steel producers as well as function as a springboard for innovation and improvement. Finally, the underlying model is briefly described and the quality of currently available data is discussed.