Wiser Recycling has installed a Smash Boom Bang at the company’s Cambridgeshire facility to broaden its capability to process small mixed waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
With three Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities (AATFs) across the UK, Wiser has a strong capability in recycling televisions and lamps and recovering large appliances for reuse. The new equipment, the first of its kind in the UK, increases Wiser’s ability to receive small mixed WEEE by over 400% and not only gives the company processing capability for this growing waste stream but reduces Wiser’s transport emissions and costs and improves the quality of the end product materials.
The German technology, supplied by Andritz, uses a rotating drum that disassembles the WEEE as it hits the sides. The process does not result in complete destruction meaning that component parts are easier to separate afterwards. Higher value materials such as copper motors and PCBs remain largely intact, retaining their value. The equipment is more energy efficient than the alternative of shredders and therefore more cost effective to run.
Delivered in June 2015, the SBB took three months to install and nine months to fully commission. By July 2016, the plant is expected to be taking material from all Wiser’s facilities and processing ten to fifteen tonnes a day. With the ability to process twenty tonnes a day the company has spare capacity to grow in the future.
Wiser’s investment comes at a difficult time for the WEEE industry with commodity price lows compounded by changes to the WEEE Regulations in 2014 that have reduced demand and trading values for WEEE evidence.
Russell Hirst, Managing Director, Wiser Recycling says: “We installed the Smash Boom Bang last year and are just finishing the commissioning phase. The plant has already greatly improved the efficiency of our operations and the output, increasing the volume of small electrical appliances that we handle through our business. It has proved a great investment that helps meet our clients’ requirements at both ends of the process and ensures our continued growth.”
The new equipment is part of a £450,000 investment programme by Wiser Recycling that also included a CRT line in the company’s Norfolk AATF and a lamp recycling plant in its Yorkshire AATF.