Waste metal recycling industry: opportunities and challenges coexist, green development is the right time

Against the backdrop of global advocacy for green development and resource recycling, the scrap metal recycling industry is gradually becoming a focus in the fields of economy and environmental protection. The recycling of scrap metals not only helps alleviate resource shortages and reduce reliance on primary mineral resources, but also significantly reduces energy consumption and environmental pollution, with significant economic, environmental, and social benefits. Recently, reporters conducted in-depth research on the industry and found that while it is thriving, it also faces many challenges.
According to data from market research institutions, by 2024, the global market size for scrap metal recycling will reach 2684.328 billion yuan, while the Chinese market size will be 911.866 billion yuan. Moreover, it is expected that the global market will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.52% in the coming years, and the total scale is expected to reach 34990.94 billion yuan by 2030. As a major manufacturing country, China generates a huge amount of scrap metal, providing broad development space for the recycling industry. For example, in the Dongshantou Circular Economy Industrial Park in Xiaonan District, a full chain industrial system of "recycling dismantling smelting deep processing" has been established. In 2024, the park will achieve an output value of 3.5 billion yuan, and is expected to exceed 5 billion yuan by 2025. At the 300 acre Hetian Circular Economy Trading Market, a large amount of scrap copper, scrap steel, etc. are recycled, sorted, and transported to adjacent factories for processing every day.
However, the scrap metal recycling industry also faces a series of challenges in its development process. From the perspective of recycling, China lacks a specialized and standardized recycling network system, with inconsistent industry product standards and uneven technological levels, resulting in low efficiency in the recycling and utilization of renewable resources. Many small recycling enterprises and individual practitioners work independently, making it difficult to achieve economies of scale, and the quality of recycled scrap metals is difficult to guarantee.
In terms of utilization, although China has seen some growth in the production of recycled metals, there is still a gap in the proportion of scrap metal utilization compared to developed countries. Taking the steel industry as an example, in 2023, the average scrap ratio of seven major countries and regions will be 29.7%. After excluding China, the average scrap ratio will reach 46.2%, while China's scrap ratio is only 21.0%. This reflects that there is still significant room for improvement in the depth and breadth of China's excavation and utilization of scrap steel resources. Moreover, the implementation of industry standards is insufficient, and companies often formulate standards based on their own needs, resulting in increased difficulty and cost of scrap metal recycling and processing, which hinders the establishment of a unified national market.
There are also certain issues with tax policies. Despite the policy of a 30% refund of value-added tax on the entry of scrap steel processing enterprises, there are still some enterprises that have not been able to enjoy this policy. The phenomenon of separation of goods and tickets in the industry is serious, and regional policies are unbalanced, which increases the operating costs of enterprises and disrupts market order.
Faced with these challenges, companies and relevant departments in the industry are also actively exploring solutions. In terms of technological innovation, some enterprises have increased their R&D investment, introduced advanced recycling and processing technology equipment, and improved the efficiency and purity of waste metal recycling. For example, some enterprises adopt advanced crushing, sorting, and smelting technologies to more accurately extract valuable elements from scrap metals and achieve efficient utilization of resources.
At the policy level, the government is also continuously improving relevant regulations and standards, strengthening the regulation and guidance of the scrap metal recycling industry. The ecological environment and other departments are revising relevant announcements to add categories for imported recycled copper and aluminum, allowing the import of specific recycled raw materials to alleviate the long-standing gap in domestic demand for renewable resources. At the same time, encourage the establishment of standardized waste metal recycling parks in various regions, guide enterprises to concentrate in the parks, achieve large-scale and standardized operations, and improve the overall competitiveness of the industry.
In addition, industry associations also play an important role. For example, the Recycled Metals Branch of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association conducts in-depth research in various regions to understand the demands of enterprises, provide a basis for the government to formulate policies, and organize technical exchanges and cooperation among enterprises to promote the overall development of the industry.
The prospect of the scrap metal recycling industry is broad, but it also needs to overcome numerous difficulties. Only through technological innovation, policy optimization, and collaborative cooperation among all parties in the industry can the sustainable and high-quality development of the scrap metal recycling industry be achieved, truly turning "waste" into "resources" and contributing greater strength to China's green development and resource recycling. In the future, with the continuous improvement of environmental awareness and related policies in the whole society, the scrap metal recycling industry is expected to usher in new development opportunities and become an important force in promoting economic green transformation.