WEEE reuse focus at new environCom London site

Waste electrical and electronic equipment reprocessor environCom has unveiled ambitious plans to reuse up to 30% of the material it receives at its newly-opened London facility.

The plant, at Edmonton in North London, was officially opened yesterday (October 5) with an initial capacity of 10,000 tonnes-a-year. It currently does not have any recycling equipment and focuses on function testing used electronic equipment for repair and reuse. Lincolnshire-based environCom has spent 250,000 getting the facility up-and-running.

However, the company, which runs the UKs largest recycling facility at Grantham in Lincolnshire, then plans to invest up to 1 million early next year to increase the London plants capacity to 30,000 tonnes-a-year with the introduction reprocessing equipment for display units.

According to environCom, capacity for recycling small waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) could also be added.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com about the project, the companys chief executive Sean Feeney said that Its plans for the site were still the same as when it emerged earlier this year that environCom was looking to develop a WEEE facility in Edmonton. Those plans involved the site operating at a 60,000 tonne-a-year capacity (see letsrecycle.com story).

He explained, however, that the exact timescale for adding to the plant would depend on the availability of material for it. Our plans are still the same but well build the capacity when we have customers to provide us with that material, he said.

Were developing a recycling facility for CRT, LCD, plasma and LCD screens with an investment of up to 1 million, Mr Feeney said. It will go into London in the first half of next year.

Theres lots of display equipment in the London B2B stream so thats the first thing well put in there as a recycling facility, then small WEEE. The timing will depend on customers.

DSGi

environComs most high-profile source of WEEE for its Grantham facility is its five-year contract, signed in 2008, with electronics retailer DSG International (DSiI), and Mr Feeney confirmed WEEE from its stores would represent part of the material being sent to the London plant.

But, he said it was also in very close conversations with five retailers and was starting to have relationships with councils in and around London.

He also said there was a big opportunity to get business-to-business (B2B) WEEE capacity in London, but could not reveal councils or companies environCom was in talks with.

Current operations

In terms of the current reuse operations at the London site, environCom has a team of engineers who test WEEE delivered on site and, where possible, repair it for reuse.

Mr Feeney said most of the material that is fit for reuse goes on to UK charities, with British Heart Foundation its largest customer, taking equipment to be sold in its network of shops nationwide.

The firm this week revealed it is achieving a 15.2% reuse rate for its original Grantham facility and has set its sights on reusing up to 30% of material delivered to the London site. Mr Feeney said this showed we have changed the emphasis of the company so its reuse first.

This exceeds the proposed introduction of a separate 5% reuse target which was this week backed by MEPs as part of the ongoing recast of the EU WEEE Directive (see letsrecycle.com story).

But, Mr Feeney stressed that not all material from environComs plants was being sent for reuse. Theres no reuse on CRTs because the only market for it is Africa and we know that as and when it breaks then theres no recycling solution there for them.

For other material, he said the firm would only export to other EU countries, because they were covered by the WEEE Directive and as such there were systems in place for dealing with it when it became WEEE.

In terms of non-reuse WEEE at the London site, environCom is sending CRTs and fridges to its main Grantham facility for reprocessing, while all other WEEE is being dealt with a by an unnamed local partner.

Mr Feeney claimed that, while it could deal with this at the Grantham facility, it made no sense to transport it back there because there was no benefit from doing so, and reprocessing it locally also reduced the transport impact.

We can process it as effectively as anyone can when its in Grantham but it makes no sense to transport them, he said.

Grantham

Earlier this year, environCom acknowledged that its 10 million, 100,000 tonne-a-year Grantham flagship facility had taken longer than expected to get fully up-and-running, as it emerged it was running at less than half capacity in 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story).

But, in January, Mr Feeney said it was operating above that tonnage, and he told letsrecycle.com yesterday that the current situation there was really good, adding were growing in line with our plans.