SA METAL GROUP: Extracting Every Scrap of Value from Waste Metal

The annual collection and recycling rates of metals continue to grow in South Africa. A report released by BMI Research revealed that almost 76% of all metal packaging in South Africa is recovered, positioning it as one of the global leaders in post-consumer metal packaging recovery and recycling, a status which industry leaders and experts predict will only improve further.

In comparison, 40.6% of glass and 30% of plastic packaging used in the country is recycled. South Africa generates roughly 108 million tons of waste annually, 90% of which still goes to the country’s landfills; these are expected to be filled completely in a matter of years and, in the case of many townships, new permits for landfills have not been granted in more than two decades.

This all combines to make South Africa’s metal packaging recycling superiority all the more critical in its lofty green aims, with food tins, tin foil packaging and aluminium beverage cans among the most common items sent for recycling and the majority of the resulting material sold locally.

100 YEAR TRACK RECORD

Leading these heroic countrywide efforts is SA Metal, South Africa’s longest standing and biggest metal recycling outfit. Founded by current owner Clifford Barnett’s grandfather, Wolfe Barnett, back in 1919, the group recently chalked up 100 years of purchasing, collecting, processing and then recycling all forms of ferrous metals, like iron and steel, and non-ferrous metals such as aluminium, copper, zinc, stainless steel, lead, nickel, brass, tin and bronze, among others. 

“The story began when Wolfe Barnett first began collecting scrap metal for export to markets in industrialised countries,” explains Clifford Barnett. “In the century which has followed, the group has grown to become one of Southern Africa’s largest and most sophisticated metal recycling operations. We have a reputation for absolute integrity in all our dealings built up over the last hundred years.

“SA Metal is a proudly South African company,” he affirms, “and has a long tradition of trading in most Southern African countries including Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.” Fully equipped to deal with any and all ensuing environmental hazards, including radioactive material and asbestos, from conveniently-located scrap yards in and around Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria SA Metal purchases scrap from a range of Southern African sources including industrial enterprises, public entities, scrap metal dealers and private individuals.

The group also acquires its scrap metal from off-site demolition projects, where it is able to provide expert demolition services to mines and factories. “We acquire our metal from a litany of sources,” Barnett adds, “anything from casual collectors picking up tin cans from the side of the road to jumbo jets, submarines, frigates and industrial scrap.”

SA Metal Group is now into its fourth generation of excellence, an astounding feat for any South African business which has been made possible due to the application of an extremely alluring model – turning one person’s trash into many others’ treasure. The first iteration of what would grow into this recycling royalty was Wolfe Barnett’s SA Metal and Machinery Company, in Woodstock, Cape Town, following the family’s emigration from London. Originally, its primary concerns were in buying old machines to break up, ready to resell their spares for repairs and parts.

The end of the war brought a much wider availability of machine parts, driving the company hard into the scrap metal space. The second generation took charge in 1946 with Aubrey Barnett, and, by the 1970s, the company had established itself firmly within the industry while adding new avenues for growth such as waste control, in essence the removal of rubble from home construction sites.

In 1980, Graham Barnett made SA Metal a third-generation business at the turn of what turned out to be a major decade for the company, seeing the business open a new main site in Epping Industria with stands now as the largest scrap metal processing plant following concerted investment and land acquisition. Just before the advent of the new millennium this was joined by a site in Johannesburg and the opening of SA Steelworks, in Cape Town, in 1999.

CENTRAL TO SA SUSTAINABILITY

Rebranding in 2000 to SA Metal Group and now trading in all of South Africa’s major centres, new sites continued to follow and investment into new equipment did not let up. In 2012 the fourth, and current, generation joined the business with the arrival of Daniel and Rafael Barnett, and served to crown SA Metal as one of the oldest continuously family-run operations in the country.

Now much more than a collector of solely scrap metal, it is an integrated material processing business involved in the manufacture of crucial construction materials. Steel billets and rebar, copper busbars and brass bars, steel plates, roof sheeting and a host of other wares can be produced in a streamlined and economical manner thanks to the company’s range of specialist machinery.

SA Metal has been endeavouring to make the county greener for more than a century, and in so doing is reusing and uplifting materials that would otherwise be heading for South Africa’s already clogged landfill. “We are fully committed to preserving the fragile environment in which we live,” the group asserts, “and to dealing with all materials in an environmentally responsible manner. We pride ourselves on our impeccable health and safety record throughout the group.”

In Africa, scrap is big business, and the growing global focus on recycling and reusing looks set only to grow keener. Growing metal recycling rates are all the more impressive given the contraction in the volume of metal packaging being produced, although industry leaders nonetheless expect the sector to grow again as more pressure is placed on the plastic packaging industry and the government to curb plastic waste in the environment.

Society is becoming increasingly eco-conscious and more aware of non-degradable waste, and the changing attitudes of consumers are demonstrably affecting the development of new packaging solutions. In a world of some nine billion consumers buying and using manufactured goods, we can no longer follow the model of resources being extracted at ever-increasing rates without consideration for the environment; but instead utilising the metals already in circulation, the metal packaging industry will become more sustainable.

“SA Metal Group is a world leader in scrap metal processing,” the company states. “As part of our commitment to efficient scrap processing, we are constantly investing in improvements to our facilities in order to increase our capability and efficiency, while reducing our environmental footprint.

“In all our dealings we strive for the highest standards of service, integrity, cost-effectiveness and concern for the environment in order to build lifelong relationships with our suppliers and our customers, while providing the best markets to our suppliers of scrap metals