Our Shared Purpose

As a division of Sims Limited, Sims Resource Renewal has a shared purpose to create a world without waste to preserve our planet.

We support this purpose by taking the material left over following the recycling of cars and end of life consumer goods, and rather than throwing it away, use it as a resource to produce valuable products.

By 2030, every year we will be using more than 1 million tonnes of this material, known as Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR), to create new products.

This means we are helping Sims Limited close its operating loop. We are also helping our customers be more sustainable by supporting the use of more recovered content in their products, and the use of hydrogen in place of fossil fuel for transport.

Learn more about Sims Resource Renewal from General Manager Christine Baker.

Our Design and Facilities

Sims Resource Renewal is drawing on proven technology, combined with design and process innovation, to create a new approach to managing Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR).

Because ASR is non-homogenous and it’s very difficult to physically separate the different materials included in its waste stream, it cannot be further recycled using common methods – like those used to shred and separate metals.

To solve this, Sims Resource Renewal has developed a new method for treating ASR that uses advanced plasma gasification technology, combined with a specially designed treatment process.

This flexible and innovative process can also be applied to other waste streams that, in line with the waste hierarchy, do not have any other appropriate treatment method.

What is ASR?

ASR is what remains once recoverable materials have been removed following the recycling of metal-based goods like cars, washing machines, and shopping trolleys. ASR is currently sent to landfill.

It typically includes plastics, fabrics, insulation, foam, rubber and wood. Dirt, sand and stones may also be present in small amounts.

The Circular Economy

Sims Limited has been at the centre of the circular economy for the past 100 years. Growing the circular economy is at the core of our business strategy for the next 100 years.

A circular economy focuses on reducing the environmental impacts of modern life by recovering and managing the things we consume and reusing them or reprocessing them, rather than throwing them away.

A circular economy reduces energy and water consumption, carbon emissions, habitat loss, waste to landfill, and reduces our reliance on finite resources.

Sims Resource Renewal’s Role in the Circular Economy

Sims Resource Renewal plays an important role in growing the circular economy by enabling the re-use and recovery of more of the material recycled by Sims Metal.

By taking ASR and using it as a resource to create valuable products like olefins (building blocks of plastics) and hydrogen, as well as by-products from our hydrogen production process (like construction aggregates and carbon dioxide for industrial use), we stop ASR from being thrown away and enable material re-use within the circular economy.