Tell us a little about the work that Recolight does for the lighting industry… Recolight operates a nationwide free of charge waste lamp recycling scheme, with over 2000 collection points. The network is available to both businesses and consumers; this service is at the centre of what Recolight does. The company was set up under the WEEE Regulations to take responsibility, on behalf of its members, for the collection and recycling of members’ obligated waste lamps when they reach end of life. Beyond providing compliance with the Regulations, Recolight also conducts awareness- raising programmes to help increase recycling rates amongst businesses and consumers and to ensure that all those in the lighting supply chain are aware of, and meet, their responsibilities under the Regulations.
How do you help lighting companies to maintain WEEE compliance? Recolight represents nearly 120 lighting producer members drawn from right across the industry, including producers of LEDs and gas discharge lamps. Through its unique nationwide open collection point network, it enables businesses and other end users to easily recycle their waste lamps.
Recolight does much more than simply sending materials to recyclers. Could you explain some of the further work you’re doing to improve the recycling process? Recolight works extremely hard to go above and beyond the scope of the WEEE Regulations. As well as providing a vast open collection point network for both businesses and consumers, Recolight also works to ensure that all organisations treating waste lamps stay compliant and meet health and safety regulations.
Recolight also works with recyclers to
ensure that as much of the raw materials from the lamps recycled is recovered and made available to be reused elsewhere. A target of recovering 80% of materials from recycling for reuse is set in the WEEE Regulations. During treatment, Recolight ensures that this process has become as efficient as possible, and Recolight’s recyclers recover up to 95% of the materials from lamps during the recycling process. Recolight is also working on ways to recover the rare earths present in the powders for re-use in the lighting industry.
You’ve recently made it easier for smaller businesses to get involved in the recycling process - why did you feel like now was the right time do so? We’re always looking for new ways to make it as simple as possible for businesses to recycle their waste lamps and extending our free services to smaller businesses collecting lower volumes of lamps was a natural progression. Now, any business can have a free of charge Recolight container and free collections if they collect 200Kg of waste lamps every 6 months.
Recolight do a number of trade shows; how do you use the time to address the issue of recycling? Part of our remit as a compliance scheme is to raise awareness of the importance of recycling this hazardous waste stream. We find trade shows are a good way to meet businesses and help educate them about the WEEE Regulations and the need to recycle waste lamps. We have registered numerous producer members and collection points through attending trade shows and meeting organisations that were otherwise unaware of their obligations under the Regulations.
What’s next for Recolight? With big changes to the WEEE Regulations expected during 2013 and the likely increase in domestic lamps reaching end-of-life, there will be a number of challenges for Recolight over the coming years. We will be looking to continue our awareness-raising drives to ensure that the UK meets the new recycling targets and that we are well prepared for future increases in lamps returning for recycling.
Contact
Recolight T: +44 (0) 845 601 7749
www.recolight.co.uk
www.a1lightingmagazine.com
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