F&R; Cawley (FRC), which has an annual turnover of 16 million, received around a dozen enquiries for the service in June, but the end of co-disposal on July 16, saw the figure rise to 115 enquiries in that month. The company said it is expecting to collect lights from the majority of these customers.
And FRC, which deals with around 4,000 tonnes of commercial waste each week through waste collection and recycling services across England, believes enquiries are likely to increase.
Jason Cracknell, hazardous waste manager at the company said: “There are still a lot of people out there who may not be aware of the requirements for segregating tubes from general waste streams.
“At present F&R; Cawley has not advertised the scheme heavily outside its existing customer base as they have been the main priority, however the Hazardous Waste Unit has been working to provide services to any businesses within the area.”
The company has a varied customer base ranging from small retail outlets to large blue chip customers, it said. Details on the scheme were issued to clients in its spring 2004 newsletter which explained that FRC can collect from as little as 25 tubes upwards. Although customers were advised, where possible, to store small amounts of tubes until they have a bigger collection.
Mr Cracknell said that this enables the companies to keep their waste collections costs down with fewer trips required by FRC. However, he said smaller amounts, even as little as six, would be collected if it was more convenient for the customer. The company also takes deliveries and sifts its other waste collections for the lights.
Recycling
The collected tubes are delivered to a number of specialist lamp recyclers around the country where they are crushed in a vacuum and filtered before the brass, metals and glass are passed on to reprocessors. The only bit that potentially might end up in landfill is the phosphor powder left from the vacuum process, explained Mr Cracknell.
The company has depots in Milton Keynes, Luton and Wellingborough, including a 40,000 sq ft materials recycling facility in Luton. The materials recycling is one of a list of services offered FRC, which includes skips, rear-end loaders, balers and compactors, waste monitoring, hazardous/special waste and liquid waste collection.
FRC's sales manager, Tony Goodman said “We will be continually looking at ways to offer new services to clients to adapt to changes.”
- FRC has just signed a contract with Plastic Omnium for a supply of 1,100 litre flat lid containers to several of its sites, including the MRF at Luton.
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