Dear editor,Recent letters to the editor have justified the proposed Raven Coal Mine on the grounds that mining coal to produce steel satisfies the demand for products upon which our culture depends.Let鈥檚 put aside the fact that 56 per cent of the ore will end up as waste on the ground to potentially pollute fresh and marine waters and that Compliance Corp. claims that the remaining sellable product is not necessarily for steel making, but rather 鈥渉igh-quality thermal coal鈥� to be burned up as fuel overseas.Nevertheless, there is no denying that we currently depend on steel products. I spent time this winter trying to think 鈥渙utside the mine.鈥漌hat if we don鈥檛 assume all steel needs to come from virgin ore?What if we apply the tenets of conservation 鈥� reduce, reuse, recycle?Could we reduce the need for steel products by reusing them 鈥� that is, extending their lives or repurposing them rather than discarding them? Could we reduce the resources that we deplete by using only the amount that we need and finding alternatives to lessen our use? Could we begin to wean ourselves away from products made of non-renewable resources?And if, even with reducing and reusing, we need new steel products, could we reduce the need for metallurgical coal by recycling steel products 鈥� that is, collecting, processing and remanufacturing new products? My winter research found that steel is one of the world's most recycled materials and can be recycled over and over again without losing its innate strength. Because it retains its natural qualities, recycled steel can be used in everything from construction to household appliances.Melting scrap steel to make new steel is more energy-efficient than mining and processing raw metal ores. Recycling metals conserves non-renewable fossil fuels. It reduces energy consumption, use of raw materials and climate changing greenhouse gas emissions.Recycling reduces the need to mine iron, chromium, aluminum, nickel and other metals used in steel alloys. Recycling one metric ton (1,000 kilograms) of steel, saves 1.1 metric tonnes of iron ore, 630 kilograms of coal and 55 kilograms of limestone, and 40 per cent of the water normally used in the production process.This means less energy is used to mine these other resources. It is cheaper to recycle steel than to mine iron ore and manipulate it through the production process to form new steel.Recycling steel reduces the amount of material going into landfills and lessens the pollution that may result from waste disposal. And, recycling steel prevents alienation of the natural environment, helps protect habitats and species and saves jobs and communities that depend on a clean environment.Is recycling steel a 100-per-cent solution? No, probably not, but it could serve as an intermediary step as we move away from dependence upon products requiring the use of non-renewable resources and thereby, render a new mine like Raven simply unnecessary.Patti Willis,Denman Island
