Abstract
Shifting public conceptualizations of the environment have led to a comprehensive, ecological view of the impact of industrial activity. Nevertheless, primary attention has been focused on the problem of externalities, i.e., pollution. In an industry such as iron and steel manufacturing, with its heavy demands on mineral resources and various forms of energy, some equally important questions are raised about the extent to which technological change has resulted in environmentally beneficial or harmful tradeoffs or substitutions. It is found that there have taken place, over a 50-year period, substantial reductions in the amounts of iron ore and metallurgical coke required to produce a ton of iron; however, these developments have raised certain new environmental problems. In the energy sector, the industry has responded rationally to changing relative prices in making substitutions among sources. Demand for scrap, the major recycled input, is found to be very priceinelastic; furthermore, despite some radical changes in the contributions of various steelmaking technologies to total production, the overall ratio of scrap input to raw steel output has remained remarkably stable over the past quarter century.
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From a 1938 declaration of the U.S. Department of the Interior; cited in Fainsodet al. (1959, p. 705).
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Rosegger, G. Technological change and materials consumption in U.S. iron and steel manufacturing: An assessment of some environmental impacts. Hum Ecol 2, 13–30 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01507343
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01507343