Steel recycling has a long history and no other material is recycled more intensively. Indeed, it effectively acts as a prototype – demonstrating just how efficiently a material can be recycled with practically no loss in quality. The process of turning scrap into a reusable raw material is not so complex. Essentially, it is just a matter of turning the material into the required form using balers, shears and shredders. Scrap iron is used as a raw material to make new steel all around the globe. Every year, nearly 20 million tonnes of scrap iron are used in Germany alone to make raw steel – more or less the same amount of iron that would be needed to make 3,000 Eiffel Towers.