ISO 20915/JIS Q 20915
(Standards for steel LCI calculation)
At the end of their service life, almost all steel products are recovered as scrap and reborn as new steel products. This excellent recycling property of steel products greatly reduces the environmental impact of steel manufacturing, and also reduces the amount of natural resources mined and the amount of waste disposed. Thus, taking recyclability into consideration when evaluating the environmental impact of steel products is very important for the prevention of global warming and the formation of a circular economy. However, because there was no established method for calculating the recycling effect, the environmental impact of material products was generally evaluated based on only one part of their life cycle, from resource extraction to manufacturing at the plant.
In the mid-1990s, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) established a calculation method that includes the effect of recycling in the calculation of life cycle inventory (LCI) based on the characteristics of closed-loop recycling of steel products. In 2015, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF) proposed to establish an international standard based on the method for calculating the environmental impact of steel products, including the effect of recycling. In November 2018, the ISO 20915 "Life cycle inventory calculation methodology for steel products" standard was published. In June 2019, the corresponding domestic standard in Japan, JIS Q 20915 "Life cycle inventory calculation methodology for steel products" was also published.
These standards show how to calculate the recycling effect of steel products in addition to the process from resource extraction to manufacturing at the plant, making it possible to calculate the environmental impact of steel products over their entire life cycle, including the recycling effect.
＜JISF press releases>
Publication of ISO 20915 standard
Publication of JIS Q 20915
Life Cycle Inventory (LCI): Data on the amount of resources used and the amount of environmentally hazardous substances, such asCO2, emitted during the life cycle of a product.
