The BMRA recently met with waste and recycling minister, Jane Kennedy, to highlight its members' concerns about the government's seeming determination to end paragraph 45 exemptions.
Currently metal recyclers have the right to operate under an annual exemption registration system operated by the Environment Agency. The government is proposing to sweep away these rights and insist that all recyclers have environmental permits in place – a potentially dangerous move given today's challenging economic circumstances and the UK's need to increase its recycling capacity.
Ian Hetherington joined the BMRA as director general in April 2009. He previously worked as chief executive of Skills for Logistics, the sector skills council for businesses involved in planning, moving and handling goods – an industry worth £74 billion to the economy and employing over 2 million people.
What could be considered a simple tidying up of legislation potentially poses a threat to around 600 metal recyclers whose ability to continue trading would be compromised. This is why the BMRA is calling for the government to review its stance on environmental permits.
It would appear that the government is not proposing a change because it has evidence of environmental risk rather it is proposing a change for administrative reasons.
In our view any legislation affecting business should be risk-based and proportionate. Metal recyclers already have to cope with some 15 different sets of environmental regulation as well as the Scrap Metal Dealers Act. This is more than almost any other industry.
Further regulation will achieve little other than an increase in operating costs and a reduction in the number of people willing to continue working in the metal recycling sector.
If the government wishes to improve the environmental and economic performance of the UK's recycling sector it would be far more helpful to allocate resources to stamping out illegal operators.
Forcing established recycling experts out of business by removing paragraph 45 exemptions and insisting on applications for environmental permits and retrospective planning, will damage an industry that generates £5 billion for the UK economy.
Metal recyclers play a critical role in the UK's ability to hit EU recycling targets for WEEE, end-of-life vehicles, packaging and batteries. We hope that now she has heard our case Jane Kennedy will abandon the proposals to end paragraph 45 exemptions.
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