Sustainability
Circle of light
Thanks to Hazardous Waste Regulations introduced in 2005, gas discharge lamp recycling is high on the agenda of waste producers. To find out where your lighting waste could end up, Tomorrow’s FM Assistant Editor, Tim Wood, visited Recyclite, part
of PHS Wastemanagement, to see bulb recycling in action. Based just outside of Norwich is the lesser known town of Attleborough, home to the UK’s largest independent light tube, bulb and lamp recycler; Recyclite. Surprisingly, tucked away on a small industrial estate, nearly 60 tonnes of lighting solutions arrive here to be processed and recycled by the company’s two purpose-built facilities every month. Recyclite’s growth has accelerated since 2005, when everyday forms of waste, including fluorescent light tubes and energy efficient bulbs, were reclassified as hazardous waste due to the risk of leaking mercury gas.
to develop the current onsite recycling facilities. In a nod to the kind of sustainable ethos that you would expect in a recycling plant, Recyclite, along with PHS’s backing, managed to source much of their wet and dry recycling plant from local farms and agricultural markets when the new facilities were built in 2009. At various stages in the process, innovations such as reclaimed bucket lifts transport crushed glass whilst a former radish washer is employed as part of the wet process used to recycle sodium lamps, commonly found in street lighting.
Recyclite’s growth has been aided by their acquisition by PHS Wastemanagement, who specialise in healthcare and chemical waste disposal, including waste falling under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. PHS acquired Recyclite five years ago as part of the Group’s 10-year acquisition plan and, impressed by the innovative procedures put in place by the previous owners, invested £300,000
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“Recyclite managed to source much of their wet and dry recycling plant from local farms and agricultural markets when they were built.”
Operating nine hours a day, the plant is working at around 50% capacity and could potentially treble its production should the volume
necessitate shift work. With that in mind, Recyclite have introduced a Business Development team to help make sure that more businesses are aware of the facilities on offer for lamp recycling. It’s a natural progression given the way Recyclite fits into PHS Wastemanagement’s service model of allowing clients the convenience of using one company for the collection of all their waste, without limiting them to one disposal route or method.
Stripped down, the recycling processes for lamps, including High Intensity Discharge, Compact Flourescent (CFL) and sodium- based, don’t differ tremendously. Operatives feed lamps into machines which break up the glass, before being slowly filtered and cleaned by a large drum – in the wet process, the former radish washer – from which the powdered element is then extracted. Extracted mercury is then stored by WEEE compliance scheme and Recyclite partner, Recolight. As a valuable earth metal, it is stockpiled for later use. The glass and bulb ends are then shaken on a
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