In all businesses, waste management follows the guidelines and procedures established in the Solid Waste Management Plan. Additionally, all units conduct waste inventories and comply with the national Law on Solid Waste Management. Information is consolidated monthly in the inventory, which is annually submitted to the competent environmental authorities.
Waste Management
In 2023, 96% of the total waste was directed towards reuse, recycling, or commercialization for use in other production chains (4 million tons). The volume sent to industrial landfills decreased by 47% compared to the previous year.
Solutions for innovation in the disposal and utilization of steel slag from steelmaking
The steel slag beneficiation process involves the magnetic recovery of metallics, which are returned to the steelmaking process. The challenge lies in studying available solutions in the market for the disposal and utilization of the non-metallic fraction, known as steel slag aggregate. We are working on the following fronts:
Donation to city halls
Commercialization as an aggregate for paving roads
Comercialização de escórias tipo C
Return of scrap metal for the electric furnace process in the steel industry
We continue to look for new ways to use them, which are still under evaluation, such as:
Rail ballast test
Studies for the use of slag for making concrete materials
Wet Mining Plant – a plant that benefits type C slag, recovering scrap and generating fine final aggregate for commercialization in the agroindustry as a soil amendment
Commercialization as an aggregate for paving roads
Part of the material is temporarily stored in an external yard at the Presidente Vargas Plant, called the Slag Beneficiation Yard. The product consists mainly of calcium, magnesium, and aluminum silicates, found in natural aggregates. Additionally, CSN Inova, together with the steelmaking, engineering, R&D, and cement areas, continues to seek partnerships with Brazilian and foreign institutions that present new and existing solutions that can offer a more suitable and sustainable destination for steel slag aggregate.