The Fire Family Transport Foundation, which provides medical transportation to injured New York firefighters and their families, delivered its first piece of steel in 2003 to the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, said Eugene Stolowski, who works with the foundation and is a firefighter in the Bronx, N.Y.

Foundation officials decided in 2007 to start the motorcycle runs as fundraisers. The Iron and Steel team has delivered World Trade Center steel to the National Infantry Mueseum at Fort Benning, Ga., and to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Co., which responded to the crash of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

More than $20,000 was raised by the bikers and other donations for the Shanksville run, which allowed the foundation to purchase a new car to transport families. The Fort Benning run raised about $15,000, Stolowski said, and a portion of the proceeds benefits the Wounded Warrior Project, which helps injured military personnel.

The Port Authority estimates more than 200,000 tons of steel was used in the World Trade Center's construction. Of that total, more than 168,000 tons has been salvaged from Ground Zero thus far, according to the New York City Office of Emergency Management

Three companies, Metal Management Northeast of Newark, N.J., Hugo Neu Schnitzer East of Jersey City and Blandford Land Development Corporation of Brooklyn, N.Y., have successfully bid for city contracts to recycle the steel, and continue to bid on what remains to be salvaged.

"Once they have it in their possession they in turn have the right to sell it," Matthew Monahan, City of New York Department of Design and Construction spokesman said. "It becomes their steel."

"Baosteel officials reached by Shanghai Daily, however, denied they will make keepsakes out of the debris, but declined to give more details of their plans, saying only that the scrap will be melted down and reprocessed into new steel products.

"Another shipment of 10,000 tons of scrap from the WTC arrived in India earlier this month, reported Shanghai Morning Post. The metal will be melted down and recycled into kitchenware and other household items, the paper said.

"India bought its lot at US$120 per ton from the New Jersey scrap processor Metal Management, which purchased 40,000 tons of the debflad of the United ris at an auction held by the New York City government. Dealers estimated that the WTC disaster created more than 300,000 tons of scrap metal."