| POSITION
PAPERS
Non-ferrous metals
are defined as metals that contain a little or
no iron; that category includes aluminium, copper,
zinc, lead, nickel, gold, silver, platinum, titanium,
manganese, magnesium, etc... Together with metal
alloys made of a combination of two or more metals.
Non-ferrous
metals are vital in today's industrial society.
Whilst their existence has been known for thousands
of years, the important characteristics and the
value of non-ferrous metals have only been identified
and fully recognised since the Industrial Revolution.
Today they fulfil many vital functions; they serve
mankind in the production and transport of energy,
they are essential for the manufacturer of safe
and reliable vehicles, equipment and machinery;
and they possess aesthetic qualities that can
be used for artistic and creative purposes.
Centuries
of recycling tradition.
Those unfamiliar with the recycling process can
mistakenly believe that recycling is a new phenomenon
brought about through legislation and public opinion.
This view is incorrect and is damaging to this
well established industry. The recovery and recycling
industries are centuries old. In their current
form, their origins can be traced back to the
Industrial Revolution. These industries are made
up of a large number of private companies which
have been engaged in recovering, processing and
marketing raw materials for many generations.
A
modern and sophisticated industry.
Non-ferrous metal scrap companies obtain the materials
from a wide variety of sources including industrial
plants, car dismantlers, municipal authorities,
demolition, food and beverage containers, construction,
etc... They use heavy machinery and equipment
and need large plant and storage spaces together
which large transport fleets to deliver their
raw materials to smelters and foundries ready
to process. The metal scrap processor or recycler
has to identify the metallic components and to
sort and prepare them according to strict chemical
and physical specifications in environmentally
sound operations, before they can be converted
into new metallic products - closing the recycling
loop. Strict specifications have been drawn up
by scrap processors and their customers in order
to identify and categorise secondary raw materials
before further transportation and consumption.
The
benefits of recycling.
It is widely agreed that while most metals and
the minerals from which they are produced are
abundant in the earth, they are a resource that
needs to be managed with regard to the possible
needs of future generations. The ideal of Sustainable
Development with its three pillars (its Economic
pillar; its Social pillar; its Environmental pillar)
is fully supported by EUROMETREC which
practically ensures sustainability by carrying
out the recycling of non-ferrous metals.
Once scrap metals are recovered (i.e.
diverted from the "waste stream") and
prepared according to recognise commercial specifications
they do become a true raw material. Non-ferrous
scrap provides a limitless resource that can be
recovered, processed and recycled into new products
over and over again. They represent "a mine
above ground". They are a vital source of
raw materials meeting the needs of industry worldwide.
They conserve and protect the earth's precious
natural resources, raw materials and energy.
Recycling conserves energy. The
energy used in converting minerals into metals
is never lost. The energy content of the metal
remains intact no matter how long the interval
between the original production and the return
to use after recycling. For example producing
one tonne of aluminium from recycling saves up
to 95% of the energy needed to produce the same
amount from its primary ore, bauxite. The savings
for other metals are just as impressive. For lead
up to 80 % can be saved, for zinc 75% and for
copper up to 70%.
Recycling
rates
Metals in effect are not consumed,
but rather used and then recycled after use. Over
half of the metals produced today in Europe come
from secondary production and therefore from recycled
material. This makes the European recycling sector
the largest in the world, driven primarily by
the intrinsic value of the metals. Recycling rates
for metals are very high and continuously increasing.
With such high values it is important to ensure
that the calculation used is done properly - it
must be made by determining what could have been
recycled at any one time against what has been
recycled at that time ( in contrast the often
used comparison of the utilisation of recycled
material against the utilisation of virgin material
is no indicator of the efficiency of recycling).
Metals recycling is a huge success story and does
not need intervention by legislators to improve
its performance.
Scrap Specifications
All 'old scrap' (end-of-their life metal containing
products) and 'new scrap' (generated during the
production of metallic products) are recycled
into new products without any reduction in the
intrinsic properties of the metal being re-utilised;
this being the main objective of the non-ferrous
metals recycling industry.
For the sale or purchase of metal for recycling,
the quality is always clearly specified in contracts
or associated refereence documents by the sellers
and buyers, and the inspection, sampling and testing
procedures for determination of composition agreed.
Consequently the quality specifications refered
to in the purchase contracts meet the need of
the buyer. Specifications have been in use by
industry parners for many years (the oldest we
have on file date from the 1920's). These Specifications
have been drawn up by a process of consensus between
sellers and buyers and reflect the scrap types
arising nationally and internationally.
The quality of scrap metal may be defined by reference
to the composition of the standardised initial
product from which it is derived, for either 'new
scrap' or 'old scrap'. Some scrap qualities have
been standardised by the CEN Technical Committees,
for example some titanium and some copper scraps
for direct melting. Standards for aluminium scrap,
zinc scrap and lead scrap are currently being
drafted. These scrap standards will not gain much
support within the scrap recycling industry as
the voting process within the Working Groups and
Technical Committees for drafting these standards
overthrows the consensus process used over the
last century to draw up specifications.
Meanwhile specifications which refer to the origin,
the physical form and the chemical composition
of the scrap lots are found more fair, practical
and useful for trading non-ferrous metals.
International
trade
Like most other raw
materials, secondary non-ferrous metals are traded
internationally. Worldwide movements of non-ferrous
metals fluctuate according to many variables:
consumer demand, existing production capacities,
price of primary metals and ores, quotations on
the metal exchanges in London or New York, currency
exchange rates, processing and labour costs, freight
costs, export quotas or import duties, etc...
The non-ferrous metals trade and recycling industry
depends on free trade; it is driven by supply
and demand.
REACH
REACH - Secondary materials and products recovered from wastes
- Position paper in EN - FR - DE (PDF)
- Presentation in EN - FR (PDF)
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EU regulatory barriers
to recycling
The
waste definition.
European legislation characterises
metals as wastes when they are discarded. The
concept of discard used by the legislator fails
to distinguish between discarding wastes to landfill
or to incineration, and the beneficial recovery
and recycling of secondary materials. Even scrap
that does not change ownership, which arguably
has not been discarded, has been classified as
waste by European legislators. This erroneous
characterisation has led to restrictions in the
movement of these scrap secondary raw materials
within the European Union, since waste is subject
to Regulation 259/93 regarding its shipment within,
into and out of the European Union. The competitiveness
of the European non-ferrous recycling industry
is damaged by these waste laws while at the same
time competing trading blocs, such as Japan or
the USA, have granted exemptions to secondary
raw materials in order to facilitate their accessibility
to their own recycling industries. The European
legislator should consider the use value and the
destination of the material as the determining
factors to distinguish recyclables from waste.
Secondary raw materials to be recycled should
be regarded as valuable inputs to industrial processes
and should not be defined or regulated as waste.
Fair
access to Secondary Raw Materials
Non-ferrous secondary raw
materials are internationally traded because they
are a valuable sources of metal units. In the
interest of fairness access by any nation to these
secondary raw materials should be transparent,
though detrimentally regulations and tariffs are
still being used by some countries to obtain a
competitive advantage i.e. to better access to
these materials. Trade barriers also have the
effect of driving down recycling rates by interrupting
the recycling chain or even by braking it. The
EU authorities should safeguard the competitiveness
of the European non-ferrous metals recycling industry
by fighting against trade restrictive practices
which distort fair access to secondary raw materials
and those bad practices that disrupt the normal
operation of the markets thereby hampering the
competitiveness and development of the European
recycling industry.
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