The major steel consuming industries such as car and train manufacturing, shipbuilding, and the construction of tower blocks are a shadow of their former self. Therefore there isn't a market for recycled steel in Britain, so we have no choice but to export scrap. Car recycling is uneconomic because the cost of labour of stripping out a car exceeds the value of the scrap materials recovered from it. I have been tipped off that many abandoned cars with missing or out of date tax discs are crushed then dumped into landfill leaking out battery acid, brake fluid, and oil.
I have encountered rumours that the steel framework from the Twin Towers was exported to China.
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