Members of the Steel Tube Institute Conduit Committee manufacture rigid steel conduit, intermediate metal conduit, electrical metallic tubing, PVC coated rigid steel conduit, and associated elbows, couplings and nipples.

We are often asked for the recycled content of our products for LEED certification.  According to LEED requirements:  “Mechanical, electrical and plumbing components and specialty items such as elevators cannot be included in this calculation.”

However, steel conduit, unlike other materials, does contain considerable recycled content and is fully recyclable.  In fact, according to the Steel Recycling Institute (SRI), steel is the world’s most recycled material. 

The amount of recycled material in our steel products depends upon the process used by our various steel suppliers.  If the pipe is made from a steel coil that comes from a steel mini-mill, then the scrap or recycled content of the steel is about 80% because mini-mills use a technology called "electric arc furnace" (EAF).  If the pipe is made from a steel coil that comes from an integrated mill, then the scrap or recycled content of the steel is about 30% because integrated mills use a technology called "basic oxygen furnace" (BOF).

Both the EAF and the BOF methods provide an enhanced environmental benefit.  One is not environmentally superior to the other, since they are both complementary parts of the total interlocking infrastructure of steelmaking, product manufacture, scrap generation and recycling, as explained on the Steel Recycling Institute’s website:  www.recycle-steel.org.

Steel products are net contributors to the 10% and 20% goals in LEED Version  3 regardless of which type of steel is used in the manufacturing of the product.

Conduit manufacturers may or may not track steel by the type of process used. Therefore, the steel conduit industry provides a range of percentages based on industry averages obtained from the Steel Recycling Institute:

Post Consumer:            25.5% (BOF)                        56.9% (EAF)

Pre-Consumer:              6.8%  (BOF)                        31.4% (EAF)

If you prefer not to submit an average number, use the BOF percentages as a conservative number.  Steel products are net contributors to the LEED recycled content points even when using the more conservative percentages.

We advise that you contact the manufacturer of the product you are using for additional input.

The additional “green” aspect of our steel products is what the Steel Recycling Institute terms the “reclamation rate”.  Currently LEED only considers the recycled content of a product, not how much can be reclaimed at the end of the service life or from jobsite scrap.  Steel conduit is especially exceptional relative to “reclamation rate.”  Four major factors account for this:

• The service life is very long. (There is steel rigid conduit still in use after more that sixty years.)
• Conductors can be removed and new conductors installed.
• Additional circuits can frequently be added in the same conduit.
• When the conduit reaches end of life and is salvaged, , it is recyclable.

You may want to review two articles by the Steel Recycling Institute (www.recycle-steel.org) for further information.  The two segments are “Steel Takes LEED with Recycled Content” and “Modern Steel Production Technologies”.

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