RECYCLED materials from a North-East steel plant have been given a new lease of life at Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5.

The demolition of the Lackenby open hearth steel plant on Teesside, in 2004, resulted in more than 20,000 tonnes of scrap steel being recycled for further use.

The scrap metal was re-melted in Corus's Teesside steelworks and turned into new steel for a wide variety of uses, including structural sections of the airport terminal, which was officially opened by the Queen last week and welcomes visitors from tomorrow.

Corus has supplied 35,000 tonnes of structural steel sections and plates for Terminal 5, which was one of the largest construction projects in Europe.

Much of the Teesside steel can be found in Terminal 5's superstructure.

Jon Bolton, managing director of Teesside Cast Products, said: "We have given the scrap metal a new lease of life in many new forms, from coinage and shipbuilding, to the state-of-the-art Terminal 5 at Europe's busiest airport.

"Not only has this recycling programme reduced waste and saved on raw materials and energy, the new steel is also 100 per cent recyclable. It can be brought back to our Teesside plant in the future to be re-melted and turned into something new."

The 330m long, 39m high Lackenby open hearth steel plant was demolished four years ago, after it was decided the building had come to the end of its useful life.

Scrap metal is critical to the manufacture of new steel, as more than 45 per cent of all steel products include some recycled content. Latest figures showed 99 per cent of scrap derived from structural steel used in construction is either re-used or recycled.

In addition to the Heathrow project, the Teesside recycled steel was used in vans, cars, rail sections, ships, a new stand at the Oval cricket ground, and coinage produced by the Royal Mint.

BAA, the company responsible for developing Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5, used the steel in the scheme that is made up of 60 new aircraft stands, two satellite buildings, extensions of the London Underground and Heathrow Express, a new multi-storey car park and control tower.