Carbon emissions scenarios for recycling Scotland's steel scrap

Steel is a strategically important material within the Scottish economy and is embodied within its stocks of buildings, infrastructure, and many different products. As a highly recyclable material, steel has the potential to achieve high levels of circularity, and there is an active, global market for steel scrap. As a high-performance material (e.g., durable and strong), steel is expected to be in high demand to contribute to the building of renewables capacity as part of the energy transition.

Carbon emissions scenarios for recycling Scotland's steel scrap published in 2026 seeks to understand the potential climate change impacts associated with a range of scenarios for how Scotland’s scrap steel could be recycled. The study provides a comparative analysis of a set of hypothetical scenarios in which a new electric arc furnace (EAF) facility is constructed in a mature and growing market. The results show that the impact of steel produced from scrap from one location varies according to where the scrap is transported to, how it is transported and how the EAF plant is powered.