EMR invests in refrigerator recycling

United Kingdom-based metals recycling company EMR Ltd. officially opened its new refrigerator recycling plant at the EMR Darlaston facility in Walsall, England.

EMR says it is the U.K.’s largest recycler of refrigerators, and notes it has built the facility using the latest technology and innovative processes, including robotic separation systems that can recycle thousands of fridges each day.

The recycling company says the new plant cost several million dollars and it replaces a nearby EMR Darlaston recycling facility that only had about half the capacity of the new one.

In tandem with another EMR refrigerator recycling facility in Willesden in London, EMR can provide refrigerator recycling services throughout the U.K.

EMR says its 70 years of recycling experience helps ensure the maximum amount of steel, copper and plastics from end-of-life refrigerators reenter the circular economy for use in new products, "saving unnecessary carbon from being released and protecting the Earth’s precious resources.”

“We’re delighted to be opening our new state-of-the-art fridge recycling plant that enables us to recycle more fridges than ever before,” EMR Chief Executive Chris Sheppard says.

“At EMR we strive to operate above and beyond industry standards, and this new recycling plant ensures we can continue to do just that. It’s a critical piece of infrastructure that will provide much needed recycling capabilities for producer compliance schemes, local authorities and manufacturers in the U.K. whilst ensuring more precious materials enter back into the circular economy.”

The company says that as the number of refrigerators that use banned chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as a coolant continues to decline, the new facility will only recycle those containing pentane, a replacement coolant.

Advanced robotic separation processes will identify the refrigerators containing CFCs, which will then be “safely and responsibly recycled" at EMR’s fridge recycling facility in Willesden, according to the company.

“Recycling facilities like this have an essential part to play as the government moves ahead with its proposals for reforming the waste electricals regulations,” says Chris Preston, deputy director for resource and waste directorate at the U.K.’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Preston helped open the new site and was given a guided tour of the facility. “It was a pleasure to be invited to open EMR’s state-of-the-art facility and to see this investment in the U.K.’s recycling infrastructure,” Preston says.

EMR estimates it recycles about 10 million metric tons of metal and plastic each year from facilities in the U.K., United States, Germany and the Netherlands.