Galvanizing a
Sustainable Future 

Sustainable development is the social, economic, and environmental commitment to growth and development that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. As the social pressure continues to mount to construct the built environment sustainably, specifiers and owners are becoming more invested and analytical in the materials they choose.

Not only does hot-dip galvanizing provide decades of maintenance-free longevity, but its primary components, zinc and steel, are natural, abundant, and 100% recyclable, making hot-dip galvanized steel an infinitely renewable building material.

Utilizing hot-dip galvanized steel ensures less natural resources are consumed, fewer emissions are output, and less money is spent over the life of a project.
The 100% recyclability of hot-dip galvanized steel is a great benefit to minimizing environmental impact, but it is only half of the story. The fact the primary components of
hot-dip galvanizing, zinc and steel, can be recycled is important, but there are two measures of recyclability that ultimately define the positive contribution to the environment: recycling rate and reclamation rate.
Recycling content is the amount of a product produced from recycled sources. Reclamation rate measures how often a product is actually recycled at the end of its useful life. Steel is the most recycled material in the world, and zinc also has a very high reclamation rate. This leads to a high recycling rate, as the reclaimed zinc and steel is often put right back into use.

The table below shows the Recycling and Reclamation Rates for both zinc and steel: