The British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA) welcomes the Environment Agency’s decision to extend Regulatory Position Statement RPS 314 for an additional 12 months.
This extension provides regulatory stability for metal shredding operators in England while work continues to identify lawful, scalable, and practical long-term alternatives for managing shredder residues and related hazardous waste.
RPS 314 enables the responsible management of the disposal or downstream further processing of shredder residues generated from recycling complex waste streams, such as end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), and mixed-metal scrap.
Last month, BMRA submitted a formal proposal to the Environment Agency requesting a time-limited sector-wide extension of the RPS. This request was supported by evidence collected from operators across England, and after extensive engagement with the Agency’s senior policy advisers.
Survey data collected by BMRA indicate that:
- All responding operators currently rely on RPS 314 to manage shredder residues, shredder fines, and related hazardous wastes.
- Between 75% and 100% of shredder residue is currently managed under the RPS.
- More than 750,000 tonnes of material per year are handled through this route.
Operators report that no viable large-scale alternatives to non-hazardous landfill currently exist. Options such as hazardous landfill, energy-from-waste, cement kilns, further treatment, or export face significant barriers, including Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) exceedances, limited treatment capacity, permitting constraints, incompatibility with downstream processes, high operational costs, and limited commercial demand.
BMRA emphasised that the extension should be viewed as a managed transition period, allowing the sector and regulators to work together to develop long-term solutions.
The Association will continue to engage with the Environment Agency through structured dialogue, evidence reviews, and technical collaboration to identify sustainable alternative outlets for shredder residues.
While the extension provides short-term certainty, BMRA believes further review and potentially additional extensions may be needed if viable large-scale alternatives are not developed within the current timeframe.
Howard Bluck, Technical Director of the British Metals Recycling Association, said:
“The extension of RPS 314 provides essential stability for metal shredding operators and the wider recycling sector. Shredders play a central role in processing complex waste streams such as end-of-life vehicles and electrical equipment, and without the RPS the sector would face significant operational and compliance challenges.
“The industry remains fully committed to reducing its reliance on the RPS and to developing long-term solutions. However, the technical and market barriers to alternative outlets remain significant, and these challenges will take time to resolve.”
BMRA also reiterated its call for regulators and policymakers to adopt more risk-based approaches to waste classification, especially where hazard-based assessments increasingly categorise complex residues as hazardous waste. Managing hazardous wastes is further complicated when viable alternative treatment or recovery routes do not exist at scale, or when the material’s chemical composition or calorific value is unsuitable for options such as energy-from-waste or cement kilns.
BMRA will continue to work with regulators and government to ensure waste classification frameworks reflect practical risk and available infrastructure, supporting responsible waste management and the ongoing operation of the UK’s metal recycling sector. BMRA remains committed to using the current extension productively to develop long-term, sustainable solutions for managing shredder residues.