The European Commissions new end-of-waste regulations and criteria for iron, steel and aluminium scrap are a legal detail that the metals recycling industry has been seeking for 20 years or more.
The regulations rightly shift the point in the recycling process at which scrap ceases to be waste and once again becomes a valuable material up the supply chain.
It moves from consumers of scrap (the smelters of scrap) to the point at which it is furnace ready after segregation and treatment using processes such as cutting, shredding or granulating, sorting, separating, cleaning, de-polluting and emptying.
But what does the change actually mean? And why has the metals recycling industry pushed so hard for it?
Put simply it means that, in law, iron, steel and aluminium scrap is now recognised as a valuable material instead of a waste. This finally puts the European Unions metals recyclers and traders on an even footing with the worlds other major metal commodity trading nations such as Japan and the US, which do not class recycled metal as waste.
And, as a net exporter of recycled metals it is something that the UK stands toparticularly benefit from.
There are a number of reasons why metals recyclers have been keen to see this change through. First and foremost, it opens up markets which the regulations have until now blocked.
For example, Saudi Arabia has a policy of not importing waste and so has not until now imported any recycled metals from the European Union. And yet, Saudi Arabia is also a significant consumer of recycled aluminium.
At the same time the change also eases the transporting of iron, steel and aluminium as it removes unnecessarily burdensome regulation for these low risk materials such as the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste rules.
Dealing with different nations approaches to waste shipment has, over the years, caused no end of headaches for those trading these materials and has put European recyclers at a disadvantage.
So what next? The European Commission is now working on developing the end-of-waste criteria for copper. If this decision goes the same way, the positive effect on the trading of these materials will be similar to the benefits we are about to see with iron, steel and aluminium.
So, congratulations to the UK Government for supporting the European Commission on this seemingly small but massively significant step.
It is great to see that the recycling sector is being recognised for what it really does turn waste into valuable secondary materials. If we are to meet our ambitions of becoming a zero waste economy the efficient trading of these secondary materials is a must.
Subscribe for free