Reduced-waste systems and methods for granulated metallic units (GMUs) production are disclosed herein. A representative method can include receiving a first supply of molten iron and producing GMUs by granulating the molten iron poured onto a target material of a reactor. The method can include removing residual fines of the GMUs via a classifier based on a threshold particle size and mixing the residual fines with a second supply of molten iron to produce additional GMUs.

A low-sulfur granulated metallic unit having a mass fraction of sulfur between 0.0001 wt. % and 0.08 wt. % is disclosed herein. Additionally or alternatively, the granulated metallic unit can comprise a mass fraction of phosphorous of at least 0.025 wt. %, a mass fraction of silicon between 0.25 wt. % and 1.5 wt. %, a mass fraction of manganese of at least 0.2 wt. %, a mass fraction of carbon of at least 0.8 wt. %, and/or a mass fraction of iron of at least 94.0 wt. %.

A weighing apparatus (1) according to an embodiment includes: adjacent hoppers (12A, 12B); and a sorting mechanism (20) disposed between the adjacent hoppers (12A, 12B), the sorting mechanism (20) sorting an article given from outside into one of the adjacent hoppers (12A, 12B), in which the sorting mechanism (20) includes a rotator (21) rotatable around a rotation shaft (21R), the rotation shaft (21R) and a central axis (21C) of the rotator (21) are not parallel, the rotator (21) rotates when the article abuts on the rotator (21), and the rotator (21) does not rotate when the article does not abut on the rotator (21).