Thanks a Thousand by A. J. Jacobs

Author:A. J. Jacobs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/ TED

7

The Extractors

Thanks for Getting All the Raw Materials

Exxon’s oil, of course, is just one of dozens of raw materials needed to conjure my coffee into existence. You need wood for the paper cup, rubber for truck tires, copper for the wiring in the roasters.

Many of these materials are extracted from the earth by corporations like Exxon, which probably don’t have humanity’s well-being as their number one priority. Many a shady, shortsighted thing has been done in search of quarterly profits.

But these companies also have thousands of hardworking employees who are just trying to earn an honest living. Those people deserve my thanks, which is why I’ve traveled to Burns Harbor, Indiana, to visit one of the biggest still-operating steel mills in the United States. In the reception area I don the requisite protective gear—a helmet, a fire-retardant coat, earplugs, and a pair of white gloves.

“Those gloves will be black by the end of the day,” says Larry, my assigned guide. “You’ll help us clean the handrails around here.”

Larry is a tall, gray-haired man with a big laugh, a big stride, and an American flag sticker on his hard hat. He’s worked in steel his whole life, as did his dad and grandfather.

As Larry says, steel is everywhere. It’s practically womb to tomb. When I was born, I was weighed on a steel scale. When I die, I’ll probably be buried in a steel-lined coffin.

And my coffee wouldn’t exist without steel. The ships and trains and trucks that carry the beans are made of steel, as are the stop signs and bridges and docks on their routes. Steel is in coffee scoopers and roasting machines, refrigerators and spoons. The owners of this mill—the Luxembourgian/Indian company ArcelorMittal—churn out steel that can be found in almost every vehicle on the road, so it certainly played a role in my morning drink.

Larry’s coworker gives us some final words of wisdom before we head off. “Never, ever, ever run in a steel mill. Unless Larry runs. Then run real fast.”

We drive along puddle-covered roads that connect the plant’s many buildings, and I marvel at the scope of the place. We pass by hills of black coal and a field covered with hundreds of steel coils that resemble giant rolls of duct tape. We enter a huge building with a huge crane lifting a huge bucket the size of my bedroom. The bucket is filled with a glowing orange steel soup that, when tipped over, glides into a furnace.

“That’s how we pour the coffee into the mug,” Larry says.

I won’t go into all the technical details (mostly because I didn’t understand them), but the basic recipe for the steel is: take iron pellets shipped from Minnesota, mix with limestone, sinter, and coke (a form of charcoal), and heat to over four thousand degrees.

The steel gets so hot, you need special brick to hold it—brick, incidentally, that is imported from China. As the steel is cooled, it’s molded and sliced into sheets or ribbons and sent off to carmakers and dishwasher factories.

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