Plans revealed for network of WEEE recycling facilities

The company is intending to install more than three million tonnes of recycling capacity by 2007, it said yesterday.

”At present plans are to open two plants every month from the end of the first quarter of 2006 onwards“
– Jeff Weeks, Environcom
Environcom opened its first cathode ray tube recycling plant in Grantham in 2004, and this will be joined by a general waste electrical and electronic equipment recycling facility shortly after Christmas. It has already begun developing plans to open a second site in the North-East of England.

The company has now revealed that it has selected 12 potential sites across in the UK and Ireland, where it plans to open more recycling plants throughout 2006.

Technical executive, Jeff Weeks, told letsrecycle.com: “At present plans are to open a plant every month from the end of the first quarter of 2006 onwards. By the end of the year, each facility will be able to run to capacity.”

Each site will be using the same technology that is currently used at the company's Grantham plant, which has the capacity to recycle 260,000 tonnes of general WEEE each year, as well as 250,000 CRTs.

Ireland

The company recently took in its first delivery of electronic waste from Ireland, which is generally using export to deal with its waste electronics. If the Irish plant goes ahead Environcom could be the first company to place WEEE recycling capacity in Ireland, the company said.

Environcom also has plans to extend its recycling activities outside the WEEE field, with suggestions that its machines could be used to recycle end of life vehicle components and packaging waste.

Mr Weeks said: “We no longer wish to be known simply as a WEEE recycler, we will be dealing with car engines and cans with the 'general WEEE' recycling facility, and the capacity that we have available will certainly not be exclusive to separating electrical equipment.”