Almost 40% of the world's requirements of copper are met by recycling - a clear example of the importance of the secondary metals industry in conserving resources and in reducing our dependence on finite reserves of metals in the Earth's crust. Furthermore, far less energy is used in recycling non-ferrous metals such as copper, aluminium, lead and tin than in mining them from the ground. The extensive range of valuable metals handled by the recycling industry also includes some of the most precious substances known to humanity: for example, specialist processors recover gold, silver and other precious metals from redundant electronic equipment, including computers.

Non-ferrous metals regularly occur in smelter by-products, in the residues of industrial treatment processes, and also in a variety of complex metal combinations. The processor must treat each of these as quite separate materials, employing skill and technical resources to identify the individual metals and to convert them into a usable form for consuming industries.

With the rapid development of the production base in China, India and the Far East among others, the flow of non-ferrous scrap metals has switched increasingly from West to East. For example, an estimated 70% of the copper scrap exported by the USA is destined for the non-ferrous metals industry in China.

The Non-Ferrous Metals Division of BIR has consistently advocated the free and uninhibited movement of scrap material throughout the world, arguing that secondary raw materials should flow from one country to another according to the needs of the world's consuming industries. Erection of import barriers, for example, could effectively deny essential raw material supply to a country's own production base. In essence, restrictions imposed by governments or supra-national agencies tend only to create shortages in some areas and surpluses in others.