SITA UK Launches Cashless Payment System

The waste and recycling firm SITA UK has launched an electronic payment method at its metals recycling site in London. The company says the program is the first of its kind in the U.K., and will be added at all of SITA UK’s 10 other metals recycling facilities in the U.K.
 

SITA also says a number of U.K. companies that have been hard hit by the explosion of scrap metal theft—Network Rail, BT and the Energy Networks Association—have each expressed support for the new payment method.

The program was officially launched by David Palmer-Jones, SITA UK CEO, and was attended by Lord Henley, the minister of state for Crime Prevention and Anti-Social Behavior Reduction.
 

SITA UK says it is the first company in the industry to offer this method of payment. SITA adds the initiative also could be adopted by others in the industry to help reduce sales of stolen metal and metal thefts across the country.

Through the cashless program, traders at SITA UK’s Hayes site will be given the option to receive payment by cash or via the new scheme and will be incentivized to receive payment via a bank transfer on the same business day. The scheme will be rolled out to all of SITA UK’s 10 metals recycling sites over the next year.
 

The electronic payment system will sit alongside a new compulsory photo ID procedure, which is being introduced in January, 2012, so those selling metals can be positively identified.
 

“Metal theft is a serious issue throughout the U.K., and we fully support proposals to update the Scrap Metal Dealers Act,” Palmer-Jones says. In addition, we believe that the use of a cashless system, coupled with compulsory use of photo ID for all transactions, will help to address the trading of stolen metals and issues such as tax evasion.