Japan's scrap materials sector attacks 'Waste Law' changes

In an emergency press conference held last Friday, Kensuke Kitani, chairman of the Japan Iron and Steel Recycling Institute (JISRI), blasted changes for the industry being considered by the Ministry of the Environment (MoE), describing them as "defying common sense." Kitani is also CEO of Kobe-based Shimabun Corp, one of Japan's oldest and largest scrap-recycling companies.

At issue are plans by the MoE to amend the 2017 Act on the Storage and Handling of Hazardous Used Equipment (known as the Waste Disposal Law) that, says JISRI, would see all metal scrap, including steel scrap, designated as "hazardous" and subject to new regulations.

As the Waste Disposal Law currently stands, ferrous scrap is considered to be "exclusive" – waste exclusively for the purpose of recycling – and is not subject to the same law. However, the amendment is expected to cover all metal scrap and so negatively impact the operations of the recyclers.

The MoE had earlier briefed members of Japan's parliament regarding its proposed changes, but details are being kept private. This has raised concerns within the institute that altering the legislation will proceed behind the scenes.

"If all steel scrap is regulated as 'harmful', it will reduce the vitality of the iron recycling industry and...will also be an obstacle to the realization of a recycling-oriented society," Kitani argued. "We strongly request major revisions or a complete reconsideration (of the amendments) from scratch," industry daily, Tekko Shimbun quotes him as saying.

In a submission made earlier to the MoE, JISRI had maintained that for resource-poor Japan, recovering metals from urban sources is indispensable from the perspectives of economic security, a recycling-oriented society, and a decarbonized society.

Yet despite scrap's recycled value, "the current amendment proposal lacks a perspective that promotes the circulation of metal and plastic resources, which is essential to building a recycling-oriented society," the submission said. Indeed, it added that the ministry's plans show "not the slightest sense of perspective, awareness, or respect for the fact that metal scrap itself is a valuable resource and that its processing industry is an important sector."

The amendments are the government's response to a growing problem in Japan of unregulated waste-storage yards popping up throughout the country – often in vacant land in residential neighbourhoods or in abandoned rice fields – that have poor fire-safety and materials-handling systems in place.  

Such yards are often recipients of stolen metal items such as copper cabling from solar farms and steel gratings from suburban gutters. Last June saw the Diet, Japan's parliament, pass the 'Act on the Prevention of the Disposal of Stolen Specified Metals' (the so-called the Metal Theft Prevention Act) that among other provisions, gives extra powers to police to inspect yards handling such goods. JISRI members had sat on a National Police Agency study group advising on the metal theft act.

To the MoE, Kitani was adamant that the ministry should continue to regard ferrous scrap as an "exclusive" commodity. "Under the pretext of cracking down on illegal storage yards, the amendment proposal would, in reality, comprehensively regulate businesses that seriously and responsibly collect resources and support resource circulation, categorizing them as operators handling 'hazardous used metal and plastic products'," he is quoted as saying. "What is truly 'hazardous' is not recyclable resources, but business practices that cause scattering, leakage, foul odors, and fires due to outdoor storage."

A report published in January by the Tokyo-based research organization, the Japan Ferrous Raw Materials Association, noted that on the most recent industry data for the year ending March 2025, Japan's domestic theoretical iron and steel accumulation –  ferrous scrap in buildings, vehicles, ships and others, plus imports of finished steel and minus steel exports – totalled 1.43 billion tonnes, higher by 4.14 million tonnes.

Written by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com