Appliances 'waiting to be recycled'
Updated on 01 December 2008
Ever wondered what happens to your old fridge or washing machine?
At a £10 million plant near Billingham, Teesside, thousands of the unwanted household appliances are piled up before being recycled.
This seven-acre household graveyard recycles 800,000 TVs and monitors per year and 400,000 refrigerators - collected from councils and businesses.
In total 100,000 tonnes is recycled at the Wincanton-run plant under the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE).
Since 2002 this EU law has meant dangerous gases, like CFCs and cathode ray tubes (CRTs), have to be extracted from fridges and TVs, respectively.
Fridges can no longer be exported to developing countries or buried underground - the fate that once befell most of the two-and-a-half million that Britons threw out every year.
A Wincanton spokeswoman said: "In 2002, Wincanton installed one of the first specialised fridge processing plants in the UK. The plant has the capacity to remove all hazardous gases from refrigeration units, including CFCs and HCFCs, whilst ensuring that the recovery levels of other materials are maximised.
"TVs and computer monitors contain cathode ray tubes (CRTs) which have hazardous properties within the glass and therefore require specialist treatment.
"The metals, circuit boards, wire and plastics that are removed can then be sent onward for recycling.
"The CRT tubes are sent to a specialist processor who separates out the components and cleans out the glass so it can be used in the manufacture of new CRTs."
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