Professor Veena Sahajwalla stands next to a viewing monitor and the furnace she developed a technique to use waste plastic in steel making at her lab in the University of New South Wales in Sydney August 10, 2005. The process, which has won Sahajwalla one of the country's most prestigious science awards, could have implications for recycling scrap metal that accounts for 40 percent of global steel production, and may turn an environmental headache into a valuable resource.