Industry group ISRI said that updated import guidelines are an acknowledgement from China that scrap materials are products, not waste. | Maha Heang 245789/Shutterstock
Chinese authorities have published updated standards for imports of recovered brass, copper and aluminum. They’re set to go into effect on Nov. 1.
China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment initially developed and published standards for mill-ready metals in January 2020. Those standards were originally set to go into effect in July but the implementation was delayed.
Now, the ministry has published updated guidelines set to go into effect on Nov. 1, according to an Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) press release. ISRI said the guidelines are an acknowledgement from China that scrap materials are products, not waste.
China currently classifies and regulates imports of the material as “solid waste.”
“ISRI has been advocating to the Chinese Government for nearly 20 years that scrap should be pulled out of the ‘solid waste’ import regime and recognized as a valuable raw material,” ISRI President Robin Wiener stated in the release. “China is doing just that with selected grades of non-ferrous scrap, and we are expecting China to establish additional standards for ferrous metals and plastic pellets in 2021.”
According to ISRI, import quotas already issued this year for those materials will be honored by Chinese authorities.
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