Thanks to a 579,091 cash injection from Onyx through the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme, the Hampshire Natural Resources Trust has opened a recycling plant for waste electrical and electronic equipment.
 It is hoped the new waste electronics recycling plant could be the first of several in Hampshire |
The plant at Dundas Spar, Copnor, will be capable of recycling around 3,000 tonnes of electrical equipment each year and will create 20 jobs in the area. It is hoped the 8,000 square foot plant could be “the first of several in the local area, with more than 100 further jobs created when others go ahead”.
Professor Andrew Porteous, the advisor to the Onyx Environmental Trust's board of directors officially opened the facility with the deputy leader of Hampshire county council, Councillor Michael Woodhall and Councillor Les Stevens, both of Portsmouth city council, in attendance.
Tracking
The plant will use an online materials tracking system, the HNRT said that manufacturers that have designed their products for long term sustainability will be able to recover their materials for use in new products through this system.
The project has received top-up funding from Hampshire county council, while the employees for the plant will be provided by the Shaw Trust and Winchester pre-release scheme.
Onyx Environmental Trust and HNRT are aiming for the site to become a showcase for specialist manual dismantling of small items. If successful, there may be more similar plants in Hampshire.
Roger Freeman, project manager, said: “This scheme will allow socially disadvantaged people, long term unemployed and offenders to gain work experience and a foothold in a new expanding field. If the facility meets expectations then additional sites to process a further 12,000 tonnes of small WEEE will be required in Hampshire.”
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