BIR rejects green steel methodology that it says penalises recycled content. The Bureau of International Recycling, which represents the recycling industry across 72 countries, has rejected claims that the "sliding scale" methodology for classifying green steel encourages the use of recycled material, calling the approach misleading and scientifically unsound.
BIR argues that the sliding scale uses a scrap-adjusted approach that allows installations using less recycled steel to qualify as green despite higher CO2 emissions. The federation says this creates a perverse incentive structure that rewards carbon-intensive production and penalises steelmakers using more recycled material.
Steel production accounts for roughly eight per cent of global energy sector emissions and 30 per cent of industrial emissions. BIR is calling for green steel classifications based on actual, verifiable carbon intensity rather than adjustment factors, and for separate recognition of primary and secondary steelmaking routes.
