Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycler, Environcom, has been selected as preferred partner to process WEEE collected by recycling company FCC Environment.
The partnership will see all WEEE collected at the 60 local authority sites FCC Environment services sent for processing at Environcom’s sites in Grantham, Lincolnshire, or Edmonton, London.
According to Environcom, teams of engineers will look to reuse as many of the items as possible with those not suitable for reuse being sent for recycling. The company reportedly reuses over 15 per cent of material received and aims to increase this to 30 per cent in ‘the next few years’.
Environcom’s Group Commercial Director, Graeme Parkin, said: “We’re delighted to be working with FCC Environment and we know the partnership of our two companies can really make a difference to the way WEEE is perceived and dealt with at local authority sites. We share the mutual aim of doing the right thing with WEEE and with our expertise we know we can help FCC Environment achieve this.”
Under the agreement, Environcom will train FCC Environment’s staff on the best ways of handling WEEE to ‘maximise reuse’ and will also produce an educational video for local authorities, highlighting the ‘importance of recovery, reuse and recycling of WEEE’.
FCC Environment’s Materials Marketing Manager, Charles Bliss, added: “FCC Environment is committed to keeping waste out of landfill and turning it into a resource through reuse and recycling. Working with Environcom enhances the service we already offer our local authority customers, helping them to reduce waste to landfill whilst giving residents confidence that they are being environmentally responsible.”
Suffolk County Council has already started working with the new FCC Environment/Environcom partnership and has said that it has been ‘pleased’ with the operation so far.
Suffolk County Council’s Waste Service Delivery Officer, Mark Deer, said: “Since the FCC/Environcom partnership became operational in Suffolk we have been pleased with the operation and the level of reuse that is being achieved from the various WEEE streams. We are also going to be working with FCC/Environcom moving forward to look at ways of increasing reuse in areas such as SDA [small domestic appliances] and flat screen televisions.”
According to Environcom, it takes 20 times more energy to mine aluminium than to recycle it and 20 times more energy to turn a scrap machine into a new machine than it does to repair and reuse it.
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