First recycled metals market launched

In the next five years, the recycling industry is expected to repurpose an average of 400 million tons of scrap metal annually, growing at an unprecedented rate due to the spread of industrialization and concerns over environmental sustainability.

Yet, the lack of a globally accepted and standardized authentication system has hampered the accuracy of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting and has made it challenging to support the value of high-quality secondary metals.

Disorganized waste metals processing and scrap collection zones too few and far between have also slowed the recycling industry's progress.

The trick is how best to organize, track and maintain efficient inventory management.

Challenge accepted

Leading metal recycler and processor Orbex, with operations in Chicago and London, has tackled these challenges head-on with what they are calling "a crucial piece of market infrastructure," namely a standard certification of origination for all secondary metal transacted via the company's new dedicated marketplace.

Certification details a record of provenance, establishing the credibility and value of secondary metals on the platform.

"Orbex is driving much-needed change by finally bringing globally recognized standardization to an enormous market, which until now has sat untapped and unimpeded," said Orbex CEO Thomas Buchar. "We are proud not only to be promoting sustainable practices in sectors which are traditionally hard to abate while offering the unique opportunity to capitalize on increased demand for environmental commodities, ensure supply chain integrity and assist multinationals in their transition to a circular economy."

A timely solution

The urgent countdown to curb greenhouse gas emissions has compelled many industries to emphasize circular sustainability and seek out eco-friendly materials and processing to help lower their environmental footprint.

With resistance to new mines and problematic international imports, the recycled metals market is forecasted to overshadow primary metals in the next two decades, with an anticipated global market value of nearly $500 billion by 2024, per a report by global market intelligence company Transparent Marketing Research.

A worldwide imperative to slow the rate of natural resource depletion has led to a profusion of stringent regulatory laws and supportive policies favoring the recycling industry and encouraging market growth.

Recycled metals are already significantly employed in the transportation, construction, machinery manufacturing and electronics sectors. Aluminum, cobalt, copper, lead, and steel can all be recycled without degrading their properties, which in the case of aluminum, is significantly cheaper than extraction from natural resources.

For example, aluminum, iron, and steel scraps are some of the most recycled metals in the world, with 40% of steel production being from recycled scrap. While the building and construction sector reclaims metal from its own demolition waste, they are the leading consumers of recycled metals in the world, followed by the automotive industry.

Standardization will better connect buyers with sellers and have a tangible impact on participating companies' carbon goals and supply chain greenhouse gas protocols. It will empower responsible sourcing and accurate ESG impact reporting, as well as substantiate international regulatory compliance and environmental credentials to stakeholders.

Growing the team

Orbex sports a team of industry professionals, including chief development officer Antonella Amadi who formerly served as head of global development at the London Stock Exchange Group, Roseann Palmieri of Sandhill East Advisors, and Tyler Adams, board advisor at Orbex and chief operating officer at SA Recycling.

"Orbex approached us, looking for a strategic partner with key insight into the recycled materials and metals space," Adams said. "It was a great opportunity for SA to contribute to, and participate in, the creation of a marketplace that allows our suppliers and consumers to quantify their contributions to a greener supply chain. We believe this technology will allow manufacturers to certify the origin of their raw materials to meet current and future consumer demands of a circular economy."

Additionally, Orbex is developing a globally recognized open-source authentication process to verify the origin of recycled metals and track their use through the supply chain in partnership with OASIS, an independent non-profit standards organization based in Woburn, Massachusetts.

"Orbex is driving much-needed change by finally bringing globally recognized standardization to an enormous market," said Buchar. "We are proud to promote sustainable practices while offering a unique opportunity to capitalize on increased demand for environmental commodities."

SA Recycling, based in Orange, California, is also backing the platform, acting in an advisory capacity as Orbex builds the marketplace.

The company has already secured a large supply of recovered ferrous metal in North America as well as access to 2% of the global recycled aluminum and copper markets. As one of North America's biggest recovered ferrous metal suppliers, SA Recycling will also provide scrap for the marketplace.

Buchar says SA realized that downstream users require a means of reporting the recycled material that goes into their products

"For instance, if Apple makes a claim that 60% of the metals on a phone are recycled, using Orbex they can have that supply chain integrity," he said.

True circularity

Despite increased scrap usage, there is a lack of transparency around what type of scrap use is being touted as recycled.

Pre-consumer scrap includes the waste materials that come from manufacturing products and indicates inefficiencies in the process. Waste material, referred to as internal scrap, is mostly fed back into the remelting processes onsite.

Emissions reduction at the global level is better achieved by first reducing pre-consumer waste instead of increasing its recycling rates and focusing on post-consumer waste recycling from products that have reached the end of their useful life in the economy.

From a climate mitigation perspective, the collection and reuse of post-consumer scrap provide the most emissions benefits by replacing the emissions-intensive production of primary metals.

Forging ahead

While Orbex is initially focused on recycled metals such as aluminum and copper, steel, and stainless steel, Buchar hopes to expand to plastics and other recyclable materials in the future.

"We saw a lot of environmental markets around nature-based commodities, but we didn't see anyone taking the helm to provide these same solutions for earth-based environmental commodities, like recycled metals. So, we're focusing on that," Buchar said. "I can't emphasize enough how we're hoping to help consumers and the market by eliminating greenwashing, making it easier to make environmental claims, ensure confidence [and] bring brand accountability to brands for them to make those claims. Supply chain integrity is everything, and this is an evolving process that will continue to gain momentum."