The company says it has developed a method to prepare PUR foam, the insulation material found inside fridges for manufacture into other products, which has seen its recycling rate for fridges shoot up from 86% to 98%.
Traditionally, PUR foam has needed to be incinerated or landfilled but EnvironCom has developed a method of recycling the material so that it can be manufactured into laminate panelling, using specialist equipment installed at its Grantham facility.
As a result, EnvironCom claims that it has been able to divert more than 2,200 tonnes of PUR foam from landfill.
And, according to Environcom, it is now achieving the highest recycling rate for fridges in the UK.
The companys chief executive Sean Feeney, said: Many of the half a million fridges we receive every year from our retail partners and local authorities are in excellent condition for reuse, and can often easily be given a new lease of life by our teams of expert engineers. However, a percentage of them cannot and so we have been looking at how we can exploit them for their raw materials, in order obtain maximum value and to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.
As a result, we have been able to identify a manufacturing use for a material which until now has provided little value but presented a big environmental problem. And because we want to do the right thing we are sharing this innovation with others in order that, as an industry, we can all achieve best practice. Its a win-win for everyone.
Reprocessing
EnvironComs 10 million WEEE recycling and reuse facility in Grantham has the capacity to process up to 100,000 tonnes of WEEE a year including large domestic appliances, mixed WEEE and cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and also has a dedicated area for reuse of items that are still functional.
Related Links
In April the company announced a deal to treat WEEE on behalf of the UKs largest builders merchant and DIY retailer, Travis Perkins Group (see letsrecycle.com story).
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