Buyers of all Ferrous,
Non-Ferrous Metals &
End of Life I.T. Equipment
Tel: +44 141 440 0424
Fax: +44 141 440 0874
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.jradam.co.uk
Riverside Berth, King George V Dock
Renfrew Road, Glasgow, G51 4SD
Buyers of all Ferrous &
N n-Ferrous Metals
COUNTRY REPORT
20
WALES STANdS TALL IN RECYCLING
LEAGUE TABLE
The UK still has work to do if it is to achieve the EU
target of 50% recycling of household waste by the
year 2020. Latest figures released by the department
for environment, food and rural affairs indicate that
the UK achieved a 45.2% recycling rate in 2016 – up
from 44.6% in the previous year.
But while England (44.9%), Northern Ireland (43%) and
Scotland (42.8%) are some way short of the target,
Wales has already surged well beyond the EU require-
ment, posting a recycling rate of 57.3% in 2016.
Announcing yet more funding in February to improve
recycling services, Wales’ environment minister
Hannah Blythyn said the country’s recycling rate stood
at just over 5% in the late 1990s – but it is now
believed to be the third highest in the world after
Germany and Taiwan.
‘We in the UK are very, very good at
getting metals out of the waste
stream but we can use only a small
proportion in the UK. Around 80% of
all metal scrap processed in the UK is
exported, of which 30% goes to main-
land Europe.’
The volumes of scrap processed in the
UK totalled around 11 million tonnes
in 2017, comprising around 10 million
tonnes of ferrous scrap and approach-
ing 1 million tonnes of non-ferrous
scrap. While Turkey is by far the big-
gest export market for the UK’s fer-
rous scrap, taking 1.433 million tonnes
in the first half of 2017, EU member
state Spain was solidly in third spot on
483 000 tonnes and not far behind
second-placed Pakistan on 507 000
tonnes, according to latest BIR world
recycling organisation figures. UK fer-
rous scrap exports to all overseas des-
tinations amounted to 3.447 million
tonnes in the opening six months of
last year versus 3.078 million tonnes in
January-June 2016; domestic con-
sumption of steel scrap over the same
six-month period was 1.361 million
tonnes.
‘A REAL WORRY’
Given the question marks hanging
over shipments to leading outlet
China, UK exporters of recovered
paper could be forgiven for putting
Brexit some way down their list of pri-
orities. Nevertheless, what will happen
post-Brexit ‘is a real worry’, according
to Simon Ellin, chief executive of The
Recycling Association. If negotiations
were to lead to tariffs on UK fibre
exports to mainland Europe, ‘it could
kill the business’, he warns. This would
be especially damaging given the
additional volumes that the UK is
looking to place as a result of the
more limited options now available in
China.
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