The most usual way of recycling graphite occurs when synthetic graphite electrodes are either produce and pieces are cut off or lathe turnings are discarded, or the electrode (or other) to the electrode holder. A new electrode replaces the old one, but a sizeable piece of the old electrode remains. This is crushed and sized, and the resulting graphite powder is mostly used to raise the carbon content of molten steel. Graphite-containing refractories are sometimes also recycled, but often not because of their graphite