Declaration on metals recycling

The recycled content of metals and alloys is a poor indicator of environmental performance and may discourage the efficient production and use of recycled metals, according to a broad coalition of metal industry associations – including the European Aluminium Association (EAA).
In a declaration issued in December, the metals industry released a set of recycling principles on behalf of stakeholders in the value chain. The declaration states that a product systems approach provides a truer reflection of the sustainability of a material or of a product than simply its recycled content. When product-based objectives are based on resource conservation alone, the environmental costs and benefits of recycling may not be adequately addressed, it is argued.
The 18 industry bodies behind the declaration hope to improve the understanding of metals recycling among policy-makers, product designers and manufacturers. Scrap is a valuable resource that, when transformed into new products, can increase the material and energy efficiency of product systems, they maintain. The focus therefore needs to be on the fate of products at the end of their initial use and the efficient re-introduction into the supply chain of materials that become available for recycling.
The declaration is a tangible result of metal-producing companies extending their interests beyond the plant gate to consideration of the whole life-cycle of their products. This focus on materials stewardship is in the interests of environmental and economic efficiency, achieving regulatory compliance and enhancing reputations through responsible behaviour, they contend.
The metals industry’s declaration on recycling principles is available at www.icmm.com