Find businesses to buy / Metal recycling
Buy a metal recycling business in the UK
Scrap metal dealers and end-of-life vehicle sites, licensed by the Environment Agency and sitting on land more often than most waste operators.
- 825companies on the Environment Agency register
- 44%trade from premises traceable to HM Land Registry
- 13employees on average
- 16years trading on average
- 28%have a charge outstanding
- 313publish an authorised vehicle count
Figures read from the register data as at 20 August 2026.
What the Environment Agency registration means
Scrap metal dealers hold a licence, and end-of-life vehicle sites hold a separate authorisation. Both are published by the Environment Agency, and both attach to a site as well as to the operator.
Why buyers look here
The site is the business. Planning consent for scrap and vehicle dismantling is hard to obtain and harder to move, so an operator with a licensed site holds something that cannot simply be recreated nearby. Over four in ten own their premises.
What to check
- The licence attaches to the site. Moving the business means starting the consent process again.
- End-of-life vehicle authorisation and a scrap metal licence are different things; many hold only one.
- Metal prices move the revenue line more than trading skill does, so a single year proves little.
- Environmental liability attaches to land. Contamination is the risk that outlives the deal.
How to search
Choose Metal recycling on the search screen and narrow by town, how long the business has traded, how ownership is held, and whether the premises are traceable. Searching is free and shows the shape of each company without naming it. A report on one company costs from £4.90.
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SME44 is an intelligence platform, not an adviser, and nothing here is for sale. Public registers contain errors and delays, and our matching of one register to another can too. Verify anything important against the source register before acting. Nothing here is legal, financial, tax or investment advice.