FAQs

Sims Limited was founded more than 100 years ago as a scrap metal business. Today we are a global leader in metal recycling and a leading provider of circular solutions for technology.
Through our divisions we are helping the world become more sustainable. This is because we support a circular economy by enabling the use of re-purposed and recycled materials in supply chains and end products. Our divisions are:

• Sims Metal: Global leader in metal recycling.
• Sims Resource Renewal: Leader in applying technology and innovation to transform waste into valuable products.
• Sims Lifecycle Services: Leading provider of solutions to extend the life of cloud infrastructure and electronics devices.

For more information on our wider business, visit Sims Limited.

Sims Limited’s purpose, create a world without waste to preserve our planet, was introduced in 2019, and it reflects our commitment to creating positive change and being a responsible community partner.

We established Sims Resource Renewal to help us achieve this 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 consumers goods, and rather than throwing it away, use it as a resource to produce valuable products. By 2030, we aim to use more than a million tonnes of this material, known as Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR), each year to create new products.

Sims Resource Renewal is needed both to help Sims Limited close our own operating loop and help the world move towards a more circular economy. We do this by using material left over following metal recycling, known as Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR), that would have otherwise been treated as waste and sent to landfill, to create valuable products.

ASR is non-homogenous, and the different materials included in its waste stream are very difficult to physically separate. As a result, 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.

By 2030 Sims Resource Renewal aims to use more than a million tonnes of ASR each year to produce valuable products instead of sending it to landfill.

This will help our customers be more circular by supporting the use of more recovered content in their products.

Importantly, we will use renewable electricity to power our facilities, which, combined with our design process, will help us achieve our commitment to 100% renewable electricity by 2025, carbon neutrality by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050.

Our state-of-the-art resource renewal facilities, technology and design innovation will also support research and development, driving innovation in the circular economy.

At each facility, we will also invest in partnerships with the local community to support sustainability initiatives that contribute to creating a world without waste to preserve our planet. We will also create local job, procurement and training and development opportunities.

We are committed to working in partnership with the communities in and around our facilities.

You can get involved through our community and sustainability partnerships, as well as in the design and environmental planning assessment process for each resource renewal facility.

Learn more on how you can get involved.

We are identifying ways to involve the local community, including through employment and procurement opportunities during construction and operation of resource renewal facilities.

To receive updates on procurement and employment opportunities register here or visit our news page.

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 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, we will be able to stop ASR from being thrown away and enable material re-use within the circular economy.

A resource renewal facility is an advanced treatment facility that uses material left over from recycling and that would otherwise be treated as waste and transforms this into valuable products.

We are applying proven, advanced plasma gasification technology, combined with design and process innovation, to create a new approach to managing ASR at these facilities.

Sims Resource Renewal has applied proven, advanced plasma gasification technology, combined with design and process innovation, to create a new approach to managing ASR. Importantly, this approach can also be applied to other hard to treat waste streams that have a high organic content, and in line with the waste hierarchy, cannot be treated more effectively through reducing, re-using, or recycling alternatives.

To learn more about our technology and innovation, go here.

ASR is what remains once recoverable materials are removed following the recycling of metal-based goods like cars, washing machines, and shopping trolleys.

ASR typically includes plastics, fabrics, insulation, foam, rubber and wood. Dirt, sand and stones may also be present in small amounts, because they were part of the original source materials for cars and appliances before the initial recycling process.

The safety of our employees and the communities where we operate takes priority in everything we do.

We have operated in the recycling industry for more than 100 years, and we are highly experienced in designing, constructing and operating major recycling and material recovery facilities.

We are applying proven, world class design and technology as the basis for our facilities.

Learn more about our technology.

Sims Resource Renewal’s demonstration plant is a small facility that has been specifically designed for operational testing. It uses the same proven, plasma gasification technology as will be used on the front end of our commercial facilities, however at a smaller scale.

Learn more about the Rocklea demonstration plant.

The development permit and environmental authority were issued for the demonstration plant in 2021. Construction was completed in the first half of 2023 and the plant is currently undergoing commissioning.

A robust environmental and planning assessment process was undertaken for the Rocklea demonstration plant.

We were required to secure planning and environmental approvals before we were able to progress to construction of our plant. To do this, under the Planning Act 2016 (QLD), we required approval for our development application for a material change of use through the Brisbane City Council. Under the Environmental Protection Act 1994 (QLD), we also required an Environmental Authority (equivalent to a licence to operate) from the Department of Environment and Science.

Sims Limited acquired a ~140,000m2 parcel of land located at Pinkenba, Queensland, in May 2022. The site’s unique position offers the rare long-term potential to create a best-in-class, integrated metals processing (Sims Metal) and resource renewal facility (Sims Resource Renewal), producing high-quality ferrous and non-ferrous metals, with on-site waste treatment and hydrogen generation.

In the near-term, the land will be utilised as a deep-water facility for Sims Metal domestic and export customers. In the longer-term, business plans for potential full-scale operation on the site will be developed.

We are still in the very early planning stages regarding these future development activities and will finalise our plans following engagement with the community, Brisbane City Council and the Queensland Government.