The company, which was known as Corus until September 2010, this week (January 19) reiterated its commitment to the UK steel packaging recycling market.
And, while it said that the supply of steel cans from collectors such as councils and waste management companies was currently meeting its needs, it raised the potential for demand to increase in the future.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Tata Steel Packaging Recycling’s manager, Garvin Freeman, said the company was still “fully committed” to the UK market and was still buying material
“Demand has certainly increased since 2009,” he noted, explaining that, as a result, “in 2010 we were back as a major producer of PRNs.”
Mr Freeman was not able to reveal the exact volumes of material Tata is taking in for reprocessing at its Port Talbot works in South Wales, but the marked increase in steel packaging recycled under the PRN system during 2009 and 2010 would appear to bear out its increased involvement.
PRN figures for the last two years show that 72% more steel packaging was recycled domestically in the first nine months of 2010 than during the same period in 2009. In tonnage terms this saw an increase from 83,769 tonnes to 144,051 tonnes.
Corus closed its doors to steel can scrap in December 2008 as a result of a global slump in demand for new steel production (see letsrecycle.com story), but gradually re-entered the market in earnest in August 2009.
“We’re dealing with major UK scrap merchants; we’re buying packaging scrap off them. I think that’s a sign of the maturity of the UK system; that it can provide us with material” –
Garvin Freeman, commercial manager, Tata Steel Packaging Recycling
Future demand
In terms of future prospects for Tata to increase its demand for material, Mr Freeman said: “At the moment we’re in a position where our supply equals our demand but things may change.”
While, pre-2009, the company used a network of ‘CanRoute’ centres to take in packaging scrap from councils and waste companies, it now largely deals with what Mr Freeman dubbed “major” UK scrap merchants.
He said that the fact that the company was able to deal with merchants rather than directly with councils and other collectors was a “sign of maturity” of the UK system, which he claimed had generated increasing volumes of material over the past few years.
“We’re dealing with major UK scrap merchants; we’re buying packaging scrap off them. I think that’s a sign of the maturity of the UK system; that it can provide us with material,” he said.
In September 2009, the company set up two new branded Corus Approved Steel Packaging Recycling Centres, in Workington and Pontypool (see letsrecycle.com story), but Mr Freeman noted these were just a part of its collection network.
“I think the reason we wanted that branding at the time was to reassure people we still wanted packaging [and] to give them a reassurance we were getting it,” he explained.
Prices
While, under its previous system, Corus offered a set price for material, Mr Freeman explained that it could no longer do so, with a range of prices being paid both to councils and collectors by the scrap merchants that provide Tata with material and then by the company itself to the merchants.
He also noted the “volatility” of the steel can price compared to the market’s previous stability, which he said meant that a set price would be less likely to work.
In general, the market price for steel cans has moved up from a low of around £10 per tonne in early 2009 to between £150 and £160 a tonne in December 2010, though letsrecycle.com’s pricing information has also shown sudden dips in the value of the material.
“We don’t have a set price at the moment because all metal scrap at the moment is very volatile,” he explained. “We know each month how much we need, how much we’re going to buy and how much we want to pay for it.”
Quality
On the issue of the quality of material it takes in, Mr Freeman acknowledged that Tata tended to concentrate on higher quality steel packaging, but added: ” I think collection systems have improved in quality, the material coming from kerbsides is cleaner.”
In particular, he welcomed the improved quality of commingled recycling collections, which he said were providing Tata with a “better product” than before, although he noted that the company’s reprocessing system was robust enough to handle a certain level of contamination.
But, he called for action to address levels of householder participation in kerbside recycling schemes, and to also promote treatment methods which yielded steel packaging for recycling.
“We feel that the packaging collection infrastructure is still there but the next big challenge is to improve participation in kerbside collection system and improve treatment,” he said, highlighting mechanical biological treatment and incineration in particular, with the latter producing post-burn material that it can issue PRNs against.
With the aim of increasing participation, Mr Freeman said Tata was looking at a “few” different projects to invest PRN proceeds in, giving the Metal Matters website, which advises householders about recycling metal packaging.
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