Credit interpretation LEED Version 2.1 - MR Credit 4.1 / 4.2 Recycled Content The LEED 2.0 reference guide allows a default value of 25% post consumer content for steel in lieu of providing submittals for the steel products used in a building. While it is possible to acquire submittals for many products, it is impractical to trace each piece of steel and provide sufficient documentation about it\'s recycled content. We are requesting that the USGBC approve our proposed values for recycled content in steel based on the currently available industry data. Our proposals for this project: Products produced from the Basic Oxygen Process: (Hollow Steel sections, tubes/pipe for handrails, metal deck, cold formed light gauge framing, sheet steel flashing & trim, wire welded fabric) Post Consumer recycled content - 15% (Year 2001 actual industry average: 21.7%) Post Industrial recycled content - 5% (Year 2001 actual industry average 8.6%) Combined post consumer and Post industrial recycled content: - 20% (Year 2001 actual industry average 31.4%) Products produced from the Electric Arc Furnace Process: (Rolled I and WF sections, angles, structural plate, reinforcing bars for concrete, shear studs) Post Consumer recycled content - 58% (Year 2001 actual industry average: 64.3%) Post Industrial recycled content - 22% (Year 2001 actual industry average 29.5%) Combined post consumer and Post industrial recycled content: - 80% (Year 2001 actual industry average 98.0%) We base our proposed defaults on the accompanying report from the Steel Recycling Institute (http://www.recycle-steel.org/leed/leed.pdf), and its included supporting evidence. The steel industry recognizes and operates on the principle that it is always cheaper to recycle steel than it is to mine virgin ore, but we must acknowledge that the recycled content of steel is a function of the steel making process itself. We feel that proper acknowledgement of steel as a high recycled-content structural material over others (concrete, new wood, masonry) is appropriate and can influence the choice of this material over others for this reason.
The Reference Guide allows a default value of 25% post consumer content for steel. To use the higher recycled-content values proposed in this credit inquiry, it will be necessary to provide documentation that the steel used by the project is produced by the manufacturing process indicated, as well as documentation of the industry average recycled content for the various production processes indicated. These values will not be applied automatically to future projects; variations from the default values in the Reference Guide must be individually documented. Applicable Internationally.