Mercury uses home-grown technology in new plant

The new plant in Trafford Park, Manchester will have the capacity to deal with 40 million lamps per annum once a second recycling line is installed later this year. Currently, the single line of the plant handles more than 5,000 lamps an hour.

Baroness Barbara Young and Bryan Neill feeding lamps into Mercury Recycling's new machine

At its previous plant Mercury used technology from Swedish electronics recycling technology manufacturer MRT. But managing director, Bryan Neill, explained to letsrecycle.com that the company designed its own equipment when it found that the Swedish technology didn't have a high enough capacity.

Mr Neill said: “We designed and developed our own plant, which separates the ferrous and non-ferrous metals, glass, plastic and phosphor powder. Our on site distillation then separates the mercury which is sold back to lamp manufacturers to create a closed loop system.”

Marketing

Mr Neill added that the company was looking into the possibility of marketing its lamp recycling equipment abroad.

Mercury Recycling held the official opening of the plant last week, with chief executive of the Environment Agency – Baroness Barbara Young – present. The plant has been up and running since the beginning of October.

” We designed and developed our own plant “
– Bryan Neill, Mercury Recycling Ltd
Mr Neill added: “Mercury has over several thousand customers UK wide. These range from a five year contract with the largest facility management company in the UK, providing more than 3 million lamps a year to small companies that provide around 50 lamps per annum.”

The company deals with facility management companies, electrical wholesalers, councils, blue chip companies, electrical contractors and waste management companies.

Mercury now plans to move into other areas of WEEE recycling at its new site. Mr Neill explained that the 30,000 square foot capacity meant that there was plenty of room to expand into. He said: “This is now our headquarters. There is plenty of potential for expansion and we will look to develop the site further in the foreseeable future.”