Industry organisations the Recycling Association of South Africa (Rasa) and the Metal Recylers Association (MRA) have called on Trade, Industry, and Competition Minister Parks Tau, the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) and Parliament to immediately suspend the price preferential system (PPS) pending an independent review of its design, administration and competitive effects.

The assocations have also called for the formal recognition of both formal and informal recyclers given their importance to the circular economy.

Rasa and the MRA have also advocated for ensuring that direct and meaningful consultation with recyclers in all policy processes affecting scrap metal, trade measures and the steel value chain takes place and for the development of policy frameworks that protect and strengthen livelihoods across the entire recycling sector.

Rasa CEO Nancy Strachan notes that, for almost 30 years, South Africa’s metal recyclers, including both formal operators and informal collectors who sustain the value chain, have been systematically disadvantaged by successive policy frameworks.

“Early cartel arrangements transferred significant value from small and medium-sized recyclers and informal collectors to a limited number of larger players.

“Government interventions, most notably the PPS, were intended to support domestic steel production but have produced similar outcomes: suppressed prices for upstream participants, reduced collection activity and a substantial transfer of value estimated at over R78-billion over 13 years.

“Formal scrap collection and prices have declined sharply, placing sustained pressure on livelihoods across the sector,” Strachan says.

She states that the metal recycling sector has now reached a point where it has to shift to a more proactive and self-directed future.

Both associations argue that a balanced, transparent and inclusive approach to policy development is essential if South Africa is to build a sustainable and competitive steel value chain that benefits all participants and contributes meaningfully to industrialisation and job creation.