Sims spotlights decarbonization in annual report

Titling its 2022 annual report “Enabling decarbonization,” Sims Ltd., an Australia-based metals and electronics recycling firm, leads off the 152-page document with emissions savings obtained when metals producers melt scrap instead of ore-based materials.

Under the heading “Our business creates a positive impact,” Sims cites industry trade association sources for figures that include a 97 percent CO₂ emissions savings when aluminum scrap is melted compared with primary production; an 83 percent figure for the use of steel or ferrous scrap; and a range of 80 to 90 percent CO₂ emissions savings when red metal scrap is melted.

On the volume side, Sims says during its fiscal year 2022 (which ran from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022), it sold 6.9 million metric tons of ferrous scrap to steel and iron melt shops and 442,000 metric tons of nonferrous scrap to global foundries and melt shops.

In its electronics recycling or IT asset and disposal (ITAD) sector, known as Sims Recycling Solutions (SRS), the firm says it repurposed some 85 million units and is seeking 200 percent growth in that activity by 2025.

In a letter included in the report, Sims board chair Geoff Brunsdon writes, in part, “This past year, the company progressed its plan to grow its core metal business, Sims Metal, through a number of well-priced and attractively located acquisitions in Australia and the United States and by opening several new feeder yards in those geographies.”

Brundson also refers to the company’s investments to convert its auto shredder residue (ASR) into energy, writing of its pilot effort in Australia “to build a world-class recycling facility with the potential for processing shredder residue through the Sims Resource Renewal business.”

In its North American market, Sims Metal says those operations “accounted for 57.5 percent of Sims Metal’s sales revenue, with sales of 5.1 million metric tons of ferrous and nonferrous secondary metal.”

The full Sims Ltd. 2022 annual report can be downloaded here.