Under California law, recyclable scrap metal items CANNOT be disposed of in landfills – and even if they could, all the landfills in California could not accommodate the huge volume of scrap metal generated in the state.

Instead, the state’s metal recycling industry safely processes the overwhelming share of this scrap metal, using a variety of safe and environmentally responsible technologies, including metal shredding and metal separation and removal techniques.

Here in California, we currently have our own capacity adequate to recycle this huge quantity of scrap metal in an environmentally friendly manner – rather than sending the material to other states or countries where there may be fewer restrictions and regulations on processing scrap metal in ways that protect the environment.

The overwhelming share (roughly 70%) of the resulting valuable scrap metal commodities are shipped overseas for use in manufacturing new metal products – thus removing millions of tons of used metal items from California and putting the metal to good use.

The scrap metal recycling industry generates more than $5 billion worth of economic activity yearly in California, resulting in major tax revenue for the state and local