Non-ferrous metals on course to meet targets

Compared to 2023, China’s total recycling volumes increased by 3.5% last year to around 407 million tons for the following 10 categories of scrap resource: steel, non-ferrous metals, plastics, paper, tyres, electrical/electronic products, motor vehicles, textiles, glass and batteries (excluding lead-acid batteries).

The individual totals were: 260 million tons for steel; 15.2 million tons for non-ferrous metals; 21.5 million tons for plastics; 68 million tons for paper; 7.96 million tons for tyres; 4.5 million tons for electrical/electronic products; 14 million tons for motor vehicles; 4.9 million tons for textiles; 10.24 million tons for glass; and 780,000 tons for batteries other than lead-acid.

The 14th Five Year Plan for the Development of Circular Economy issued by China’s National Development and Reform Commission proposes to increase the output rate of major resources by around 20% in 2025 when compared to 2020. Annual scrap steel usage has reached 320 million tons and utilisation of recovered paper has attained 60 million tons. Meanwhile, production of recycled non-ferrous metals has reached 20 million tons, with copper, aluminium and lead achieving development targets of, respectively, 4 million tons, 11.5 million tons and 2.9 million tons.

Except for scrap steel, which is affected by adjustments in the real estate industry and by the production situation for steel mills which has not met expectations, the recycling and utilisation of other major categories of recycled resource can basically reach pre-determined targets.