Record waste in the metal and manufacturing industry: what does your processor provide?
A sustainability questionnaire often asks about waste streams: how much waste your company produces, what portion is reused or recycled, and what portion is incinerated or landfilled. For metal and manufacturing companies, this typically includes metal scrap, packaging material, residue from processing operations, and sometimes hazardous waste such as cutting and drilling oils. The figures you need are largely already held by your waste processor.
Most recognized waste processors track per stream how much weight was collected, under which waste code it falls, and how it was processed. This data appears on weighing notes, annual summaries, and, for streams subject to notification requirements, in the register held by the National Waste Reporting Center. For a sustainability questionnaire, this is often precisely what is requested: not an estimate, but a figure that already exists on paper.
What the VSME standard asks about waste and materials
The VSME standard, the voluntary EU standard for unlisted SMEs, contains a section on resource use and circularity. This covers the quantity of waste by type and the processing method: reuse, recycling, incineration with energy recovery, incineration without recovery, or landfilling. Some customers additionally ask about the share of recycled material in what you purchase, for example the percentage of recycled content in aluminium or steel.
Whether a specific question falls within this standard is not always clear in advance. Anyone in doubt as to whether a posed question reasonably fits within the VSME can check this via the compliance check; it provides an indication per question and refers to the location in the official text. see per topic what the standard does and does not ask
The relationship between waste and energy use in metal processing
Waste and energy are often linked in the metal and manufacturing industry. Cutting, welding, rolling and surface treatment consume energy and produce residual material. Part of that residual material, such as metal scrap, is collected separately and typically has a market value; this makes it for many companies a stream that is already well tracked, because there is money involved. For scope 1 and 2, other sources again apply such as the energy bill and fuel receipts; anyone mapping both at the same time often sees that it concerns the same processes, only viewed from a different angle.
Origin of raw materials: what a supplier can provide
Increasingly, questions are also asked about the origin of raw materials: whether steel is newly produced or largely recycled, and where it comes from. This data is not in your own administration, but with your metal supplier. A material certificate or a statement from the supplier about the recycled content percentage is the standard proof for this. It is advisable to simply request this with your next order, so it is ready as soon as a questionnaire asks for it.
A file that remains in place
The waste figures from this year will be needed again next year, usually in a slightly different form. Anyone who has collected and confirmed the weighing notes, the processor's annual summary, and the supplier declarations once does not need to do so again next time. esgia.eu keeps that file for you and notifies you when a change in the standards affects that particular data. how the data enters your file
A certificate, mark of approval or assurance statement is not produced by this process, and for these SME sustainability reports there is currently no recognised body. What does remain is a well-substantiated answer with a clear source reference, so that in case of doubt you can always fall back on the source text or, for your own situation, on a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority.
Find out where you stand yourself
Before you gather all documents together, it is often more efficient to first determine which questions are permitted to be asked and which data you probably already have. get an indication of your situation in a few questions provides insight into this in advance, without you having to build a file immediately. If you are still uncertain about a specific aspect, see the most frequently asked questions about the questionnaire and the file.