Using technology from German firm MeWa, the new plant employs around 25 people and processes over 1,000 fridges a day. EMR is prioritising the three-month backlog of domestic appliances from Britain's “fridge mountain” at the moment, although they also accept commercial and industrial fridges.
Steel taken from the fridges is sent to domestic and overseas smelters, non-ferrous metals separated for re-use, the oil is also re-used, the glass is mostly turned into construction aggregates and the electric cable is sent to their specialist plant at Brentford. But EMR is now looking for a better way of dealing with its mixed plastic fractions.
 It takes four minutes for EMR's new plant to get through each fridge |
“We're trying to find new applications for the mixed plastics,” said Cherry Read, EMR's communications manager. “At the moment it's very low grade, so it's difficult to find a market. Not much can be made from it at the moment except low-grade gardening products – seed trays and fence posts.”
Although PVC, which mostly comes from the electrical cable, goes to Oxford Plastics to be turned into plant pots and traffic cones, EMR is considering teaming up with London Remade to construct an entirely new plastics recycling facility somewhere in the capital.
“We've already undertaken a 30,000 research project with London Remade into the re-use potential of refurbished fridges,” Ms Read told letsrecycle.com. “The next step is practical research into the best ways of sorting and recycling fridge plastics.”
The company is also looking into alternative ways of dealing with the ozone-depleting CFC gasses extracted from the fridges, including “non-thermal plasma” technology.
EMR currently has contracts with over 20 local authorities – including eight London boroughs – to provide fridges for their new Willesden plant. As well as this, they have a deal with the Waste Recycling Group to take on 170,000 units plus arrangements with Biffa, SITA and the Bond Group, which handles commercial equipment from supermarket chains.
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