The metals sector has traditionally been one of the most profitable recycling industries, with an estimated turnover of between £4 billion and £5 billion a year. The sector's trade organisation, the British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA), estimates that, in 2006, it recovered 15 million tonnes of material, and metal recovered in the UK is used as a raw material both domestically and overseas.

Scrap metal come in two forms; ferrous - steel and iron - which includes steel packaging such as food cans, and non-ferrous - such as copper, brass, aluminium and zinc - which includes the majority of drinks cans.

It also comes from a variety of sources, and as a result metal recyclers have had a key role in helping the UK to work towards a number of European recycling targets, including the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Directive, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. The sector is set to be heavily involved in recycling waste batteries under the Battery Directive.

However, despite the metal recycling sector's size and value, and a concerted period of high prices for recovered metals in recent years, the sector suffered from the market downturn experienced throughout the recycling industry in late 2008. In particular, a major drop in demand for scrap to be used as a secondary raw material due to global slumps in the automotive and construction sectors meant that the industry was hit by concerns over the long-term impact on scrap metal recyclers of all sizes.

To aid their cause, metal recyclers have long campaigned for reduced regulation, and in particular, with up to 60% of the UK's recovered metal being exported, for changes to the regulatory framework for sending metals for reprocessing overseas. With the inclusion of 'end of waste' criteria within the revised EU Waste Framework Directive that was passed in 2008, hopes have been raised among metal recyclers that recovered metal may be considered as a secondary raw material and not waste, and therefore not subjected to such stringent shipping controls.

Metal recyclers have long been expected to register with their local authority and keep a record of all material that passes through their yard, under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964. But, in recent years, domestic regulation of the metal recycling sector has seen the introduction of legislation that specifically targets rogue elements of the industry, such as the Motor Salvage Operators Regulations 2002, which aim to reduce opportunities for stolen vehicles to be disposed of.

Efforts are also continuing to stamp out the inter-related problems of illegal scrap metal dealers, and metals theft, with the Home Office establishing a National Metal Theft Crime Unit in early 2009 in a bid to tackle the issue.

Source: British Metals Recycling Association