Did you know that steel is one of the sustainable construction materials?
Steel is the most important engineering and construction material that underpins almost every aspect of our lives – buildings, transport, infrastructure and more. And it can be reused, reduced and recycled and therefore it is environmentally friendly if treated properly.
Here are things you can do to show some love to Steel ❤ :
1. Avoid
If you are not building straight away, try to keep your steel dry so corrosion does not occur between surfaces stored together.
Try to make sure they are away from stormwater drains as building and construction waste often enters our waterways through stormwater drains, and is a major cause of pollution. With that, keep your building products and waste on your site in such a way that you don’t contribute to the pollution of waterways.
2. Reduce
In building your dream building, we always opted to use steel as it gives a high strength-to-weight ratio. If you are building yourself and not using a pre-engineered shed company you could opt to purchase recycled scrap steel to reduce your use of resources and generation of waste.
For sheds from companies like Fair Dinkum, Ranbuild, Widespan, and Best Sheds and the like, the fact that they use precision fabrication also reduces waste and site transport costs and improves quality and finish.
3. Reuse
Steel construction components have the ability to be reused in their original state. You can or you could let your builder or add it on the contract that they will supply recycled materials where possible. As mentioned on Reduce, there are a few companies that supply recycled steel. Reuse of steel has significant benefits in energy consumed and isa environmentally conscious action. You could buy a second hand shed, disassemble it and relocate it if the design is ok for your site conditions.
4. Recycle
According to Australia Steel Institute, recycled steel accounts for significant energy and raw material savings, including over 1400 kg of iron ore, 740 kg of coal and 120 kg of limestone saved for every 1000 kg of steel scrap made into new steel (Sustainable Steel – Policy and Indicators 2014, p.5, worldsteel).
Steel manufacture generates very little that goes to waste and utilises all of the scrap steel to create new steel products. And steel can be reused again by remelting and recycling without loss of its intrinsic properties.
We would love to hear what your thoughts are on Steel Sheds and how they can be more sustainable and environmentally friendly?
References:
Recycle Building Waste
Steel and Sustainability
