March 2011

The Market

The world market for steel in 2010 is estimated at $400 billion dollars and reaches 1.3 billion tons. The largest steel company ArcelorMittal, controlled by Lakshmi Mittal, is quoted on the Dutch Stock Exchange, with a turnover in excess of €30 billion. This conglomerate controls approximately 10 percent of global sales. Whereas the steel industry used to be an American business, it has decidedly turned into an Indian and Chinese affair. Over one third of the world's steel output is produced in China. However the Indian market leaders made a string of global acquisitions after the sector went through a deep consolidation battling two decades over over-capacity, making them the captains of this growth industry. Strategically the Indians have a competitive advantage over the Chinese since India is the third largest producer of iron ore, after Australia and Brazil. Today, over half of India's ore is exported, and this is likely to change as to secure strategic reserves.

Steel is the most recycled material on Earth. The total volume of steel recovered through industrial and consumer recycling programs is larger than paper, plastics, aluminum, copper and glass combined. Approximately 30 percent of all steel used today is recycled. Electric arc furnaces in Germany and Japan operate with 100 percent recovered steel, which has the great benefit that it can be reused indefinitely. Industry has made major strides forward with the car industry steel recycling rates in Europe reaching nearly one hundred percent after the European Union imposed the most stringent standards. However, over two thirds of all steel manufactured is still wasted. Recycling rates at homes for steel are particularly low. American homes discard 100 million steel cans per day (36.5 billion per year) and the non- recycled part is enough to put a pipeline from New York to Los Angeles and back each day.

Steel is thanks to its magnetism easy to sort and recycle. One ton of recycled steel saves 1.1 ton of ore, and 630 kilograms of coal. The recycled steel in North America saves enough energy to power 18 million households. One of the greatest challenges of steel remains its greenhouse gas emissions which is a natural by-product since the industry's inception over 4,000 years ago. The energy requirements per ton of steel has dropped 30 percent over the past 20 years. Still, each ton of steel generates two tons of CO2 equivalent, which even when it is much lower than aluminum that emits 11 tons, still represents a major contribution to global climate change.

The Innovation

The steel industry has a vast agenda for innovation, ranging from the production of high strength steel, to extracting more from ores, the production of coatings for steel including the revolutionary covering of steel with thin film solar cells. The rethinking of the size of steel mills has inspired engineers to create mini-mills reducing the capital investments per production facility with increased flexibility and a reduced environmental impact providing management with more opportunities to recover waste heat, especially from the cooling of the molten steel. This process allows the further compacting of the mills' size and clustering of industrial activities. However one of the areas that need strategic attention is scrap and slag. While this is nothing new, it has always been a matter of recycling with low or no value added.

Ji Gengxin, a demobilized soldier from China's People's Liberation Army studied the massive accumulation of more than 10 million tons of slag that is discharged from steel works in his country each year. Internationally, most of this waste is recycled for road pavement. However slag waiting to be recycled covers large patches of arable land generating serious air and soil contamination.

Mr. Ji realized that slag contains 15 percent waste steel and the remainder is known to be a high strength material, resistant to wear, tear and corrosion. Mr. Ji went on to create the Wuhan Metallurgical Slag Environment Protection Engineering Company and started with 25 unemployed and a small credit of 30,000 Yuan ($4,600) to work on the recovering of this pollutant. Mr. Ji and Dr. Chen Yimin from the Chinese Academy of Construction Material Sciences succeeded in demonstrating that finely ground slag powder – the leftover after recovering the steel content – can replace 20 percent of cement as an active additive reinforcing the strength of concrete. Instead of recycling slag as low grade raw material for road pavement, it is now a high value ingredient in the construction industry. Generating more value by shifting the waste stream from one industry to another is a typical characteristic of the Blue Economy.

The First Cash Flow

Their patented technique, including the crushing, wet magnetic selection, screen separation, and grinding system was first successfully used in the cement to build pier beams for the Xia Bai Shi Great Bridge across the sea in Fijian Province. This provided the necessary breakthrough to start reprocessing one hundred hectares of slag piles at the Wuhan Iron and Steel Group (WISCO), the first Chinese supergiant industrial complex that started operations in 1958. Statistics show that more than 1.4 million tons of slag are discharged each year from this steel work alone. The creative and scientific work of the Wuhan team created a new industry that that earns an average of 200 Yuan ($30) net per ton of slag, including the provision to restore the polluted land. In one decade, this slag recycling company expanded from two dozen to 500 employees.

The Opportunity

While steel slag continues to be used to pave freeways in the rest of the world, it is seldom used for that purpose in China. It is highly unlikely as well since slag slag generates multiple revenues. The Wuhan Group has now introduced their technology to the building industry with a wide portfolio of implemented projects, including airports, subways and dams. After 17 years all slag piles around Wuhan have been removed. The steel content has first been fully recycled and now the left-overs generate more income than the scrap value. The annual slag output from this one plant in Wuhan is generating over $100 million in net income, a better performance than any other slag processing company on record. This offers an opportunity to start mining waste from steel mills and start building a cluster around it.

There is no doubt that this portfolio of innovations, providing higher quality with what is locally available offers a platform for entrepreneurship that can be repeated around any old steel mill around the world, provided there are the entrepreneurs to make it happen.

For more information please visit www.blueeconomy.de

As a raw foods and wellness expert, I’ve received many questions from those fearful about possible radiation exposure from the nuclear reactors in Japan. In this blog post, I hope to clear up some misconceptions and offer some valuable advice on dealing with radiation.

I don’t have time to go into the anatomy of fear in this post (more about that in another post), but I do want to make one thing clear: Continuous fear suppresses the immune system. The current fears surrounding the potential of radiation exposure cause far greater harm to humans than the likelihood of actual radiation exposure.

Natural Solutions for Radiation Exposure

• If a meltdown really does happen and the threat of radiation exposure increases, I suggest the following:
• First conquer your fears by beginning or continuing a very dedicated practice of Kundalini Yoga to strengthen and move and open the chakras. This will also improve your digestive and immune systems.
• Drink unpasteurized GMO-Free Miso Soup with lots of kelp, dulse, and daikon radish.
• Eat and drink bitters, such as Swedish Bitters (available in any natural food store) or the bitters I use so much in my cookbook, Celebrating Our Raw Nature.
• Get the herb Chaparral, but do not take this unless you are directly exposed to radiation and even then, only for a short period of time.
• Eat and drink foods high in vitamin C and antioxidants.
• Have all the greens possible, particularly wheatgrass juice, Sun Chorella ( ironically almost all the antidotes are from Japan), E3Live (see the Serenity Spaces resources page for a discount on this), BrainOn , and all other blue and green algae and sea vegetables.
• Protect your kidneys with baking soda. These are the first organs usually affected from radiation. See “Baking Soda and Radiation” below for more details.

Baking Soda and Radiation

Baking soda ( Bicarbonate of Soda) helps to keep the kidneys alkaline during emergencies and radiation will therefore not do much harm, if any at all. The properties of sodium bicarbonate are so protective, buffering, and neutralizing that it can be used liberally in cases of radiation exposure to protect kidneys and other tissues. Baking soda acts like an efficient janitor helping to cleanse the mess and wash away the poisons and toxins. When used in cases of radiation, baking soda protects the tissues by leaving behind an alkaline trail to ensure everything stays perfectly safe. Baking soda is even administered intravenously to protect chemotherapy patients from its extreme toxicity. In addition, baking soda has a high Ph value and this property helps to oxygenate fungi and tumors. It has been proved that cancer cells cannot flourish and thrive on high Ph or high oxygen levels.

So how do I recommend that you use this? A tablet or teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate along with the few drops of fresh lemon juice acts as an antacid and could potentially provide instant relief from the effects of radiation. (By the way, this same recipe works for dispelling painful wind in case of indigestion and flatulence.)

A foot soak made of 150gms of bicarbonate of soda with equal quantities of Epsom salts would also be helpful. Or simply add it to your bathtub when taking a bath as most professional dancers do to alleviate sore muscles from hours of dancing.

Commercial Iodine and Radiation

I have not recommended commercial iodine because even in small doses, iodine is slightly toxic. In large amounts, it is highly poisonous. Elemental iodine is an irritant which can cause sores on the skin. Iodine vapor also causes extreme eye irritation. In nature, iodine occurs in the form of iodide ions, mainly in seawater. It is introduced into the food chain via seaweed and other sea-plants, which is why I have recommended sea vegetables. Iodine is also found in some minerals and soils.

Protect Your Immune System

Again, although I don’t have time to go into the anatomy of fear, I am reiterating very strongly here that continuous fear suppresses the immune system! I suggest that all yoga and meditation classes end with sending cooling vapors energetically toward and into the nuclear reactors in Japan and that each person on awakening and before retiring at night does the same. The power of this is much stronger than the small band of people in Japan heroically putting their own lives at risk to cool off the nuclear plants.

By sending anger and hatred (which I am hearing in some media sources) towards the Japanese utility companies and the government there, all we are doing is sending more heat which is exactly what is not needed now. Where there is anger there is heat. Where there is love there is cooling energy. This cooling effect will produce results if we all do this together.

So every time you find yourself feeling fearful or worried, please remember that that is not what is needed now, and it is simply wasted energy. Focus instead on creating a flood of love inside of you and send it to everyone in Japan. That is what they need. Not our unfounded fears which only stifle and block us. Do lots of deep breathing by running, hiking, jumping, dancing, playing on rebounders, and participating in joyous, liberating creative activities. Then send the excess bliss towards and into what we call Japan.

Everything they are experiencing there affects us as we are part of the same invisible thread. So send them what they are unable to give themselves now which is emancipated creative energy, love, and vibrant health. They have given us so much with their foods, technology, and culture. It is our time now to replenish them when they need it. So let’s ignite ourselves with gratitude and love and let’s also remember the people in New Zealand, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and other areas of trouble as we do so.

We are all in this together! So let go of the fear and feed and nourish yourself with gratitude and love. That is the true healer. There is nothing to fear from cancer…. just be mindful of the power within you that absorbs every experience and grow into your true magnificence as a result of all this.

PS: Please feel free to reproduce and post wherever you wish.

PPS: Next week I shall write an article re: the Anatomy & Physiology of Fear on my blog: http://blog.greenlifestyles.org/

Committed to Raising Consciousness
Dorit, GreenLifestyles.com
Book, Celebrating Our Raw Nature 1 & 2
www.serenityspaces.org - 310-854-2078
www.greenlifestyles.org - 310-928-7689