AIR QUALITY

AIR QUALITY IN OUR COMMUNITIES

BlueScope Steel remains committed to reducing air emissions and improving air quality in the communities in which we operate.

BlueScope Steel has installed control mechanisms to reduce emissions at a number of our facilities. These systems include:

• Baghouses and filtering
• Chemical treatment
• Thermal oxidisation
• Recycling back into the process
• Dust suppression

The Company extensively monitors emissions at its operations, both on and off site, to maintain compliance with regulatory limits and to understand our impact on the community.

Many sites are required to report emission levels to regulators with some results being published on public websites.

Among the most noticeable emissions from our steelmaking plants are air pollutants, such as oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, dust, odours and greenhouse gases.

Monitoring results for fine particulate, oxides of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide are shown in the graphs.

• This is the first full year we have operated the new Gypsum Plant at the Port Kembla Steelworks which removes sulphur from the waste gases at the Sinter Plant. This has resulted in a significant reduction in the amount of sulphur dioxide from our Port Kembla Steelworks.


• The impact of the global financial downturn, and the subsequent decrease in production output across the business, resulted in a significant reduction in BlueScope Steel’s air emissions in FY09.