REPIC & Environcom: UK’s first automated compressor recycling system raises standards for WEEE treatment in the UK

Environcom Ltd, the UK’s biggest independent recycler of WEEE, partnered with REPIC to enable investment in the UK’s first compressor dismantling facility, which uses pioneering technology to raise the standards for WEEE treatment.

Previously there was no capacity in the UK to dismantle compressors found in fridges and other cooling equipment and very limited capacity in Europe. With the majority of the EU’s compressors exported to countries where recycling may not be undertaken at the same standards as within the EU.

With the new facility, Environcom can provide a full service dismantling and recycling of electrical cooling appliances and reduce exports and minimise carbon footprint, maximise recovery of valuable metals and reduce the need for virgin raw materials. As well as provide producers with a complete audit trail for greater volume of compressors. The new facility opened in December 2019 and from the outset was processing around 10,000 compressors a week, extracting 63 tonnes of steel and approximately seven tonnes of copper per week.