Throughout the 20th century, most industries have focused on a similar set of challenges-specifically, the design of competitive products, cost-effective production and expeditious marketing. From research 'and design to commercial distribution, companies have guided their products through a life cycle which typically ended with a sale to the enduse customer. Suddenly, however, industry ,is being called upon to redesign their participation in the product life cycle to include the additional stages of collection and reuse. These changes represent a more wholistic, pragmatic way of looking at product design, application and marketing. For the steel industry, this total lifecycle philosophy has been standard business practice for decades. It represents an attentiveness that has grown from a combination of factors, including the consumption of ferrous scrap in the steelmaking process and the ability to employ scrap economically. The mission of the Steel Can Recycling Institute (SCRI), located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is to promote and sustain one aspect of steel recycling-steel cans. The SCRI serves,as a steel can information and technical resource and encourages cooperation among communities, recyclers and intermediate processors who are implementing or are involved in steel can recycling. After all, an industry cannot undertake a significant recycling initiative without the cooperation of all participants. The steel industry learned early about cooperation. For instance, ferrous scrap dealers have been a major player in returning waste scrap and spent steel products to the mills. And for years, ddinning companies have helped the industry maintain the critical balance of tinned and detinned scrap usage. These systems of collection, processing and reuse have evolved through time and joint efforts. But for the steel industry, and other industries as well, the luxury of time in retrieving post-consumer recyclables is not an option. Fortunately for the steel industry, the evolution of the steelmaking process has met with environmental awareness in a hand-in-glovefashion. Theindustryrecognizes its responsibility for retrieving steel cans from the municipal solid-waste stream and possesses the means to recycle them effectively. The combination of a growing supply of steel cans and the steady technological achievements of the industry have made the steel can not only an efficient package, but a bountiful supply of high-quality scrap for the steel industry. Communities benefit from steel can recycling in a very direct and immediate manner because the recycling of steel cans extends landfill life. Further, the environmental benefits of recycling all forms of steel have been demonstrated in terms of reducing air emissions, water pollution and water usage. Further, significant energy savings are realized by recycling steel. At today's level of scrap usage, it is estimated that steel recycling annually saves enough energy to meet the power needs of the entire Los Angeles metropolitan area for over eight years. Additionally, domestic natural reserves of iron ore, coal and limestone are conserved for future generations. The steel industry could today effectively recycle all of the 100 million steel cans used daily in the U.S. if all were collected. As the industry's internal scrap resources continue to decline, its demand for post-consumer steel cans will rise steadily. The SCRI works with municipalities, recyclers, public works officials, legislative representatives and consumers to expand and strengthen the steel can recycling infrastructure. In most phases, this is the same infrastructure that supports all recycling. Recently, the SCRI opened regional offices from which recycling representatives serve the communities and states in their regional area. The SCRI anticipates that it will have opened offices in the majority of the U.s. regions by the end of 1990. As recycling continues to grow and dominate as the primary solid waste solution in the U.S., SCRI anticipates that, by 1995, steel can recycling will reach the rate that matches today's overall steel industry recycling rate-over 66 percent. In the long term, the goal, of course, is to go well beyond 66 percent to ensure that steel can recycling remains one of the primary elements of the municipal solid waste solution for the environment. Today, consumer packaging is the recycling target; tomorrow, who knows? The steel industry has an advantage-an impressive and unmatched recycling history. We have not been waiting for someone to tell us the recyclable target of tomorrow. We are working on it today-through product design, marketing and use, to ensure that the maximum number and variety of steel products are recycled.