This paper addresses issues of material flows in a selection of modern steel plants,especially the generation of wastes, from a social sciences perspective. I analyse keyfactors structuring waste management decisions through the case of “problem” wastesarising at a steel company’s plants. I discuss how some materials come to be construed asmore problematical than others from a material and technological point of view, but alsoby taking into account organisational and legislative issues, in order to show that theconstruction of the “waste” category needs to be envisioned as resulting from a matrix ofsocio-material causes.