The fridge mountain that has been piling up in Manchester's Trafford Park area is set to be levelled and recycled by Wincanton. In a project that is expected to run until April 2005, over 40,000 end-of-life refrigeration units will be cleared and recycled.
Wincanton was awarded the contract due to its ability to offer a cradle-to-grave solution for the disused fridges: clearing the land, transporting the units and recycling all parts without the use of sub-contractors. This ability is due to the company's fridge recycling plant at Billingham, near Middlesbrough, and its CFC re-packaging capabilities at Widnes.
In order to meet the client’s target, around 3,500 fridges will be removed from site every week and transported via a dedicated fleet of Wincanton vehicles to the Billingham plant, which can handle up to 300,000 fridges each year. Before processing, the harmful CFCs are removed from the fridges in line with ODS regulations, and the units are then recycled to their constituent materials.
“The fridge recycling plant at Billingham represents a significant investment that Wincanton has made in response to increasing legislative challenges faced by land owners, local authorities, manufacturers and retailers,” explained Gordon Scott, managing director, Industrial at Wincanton. “As a result, we are able to provide Brixton plc with service options that simply can't be found elsewhere. In some cases, fridges are still being shipped to mainland Europe or are being processed to lower standards, but Wincanton is continuing to provide sustainable solutions here in the UK.”
Wincanton operates similar contracts for local authorities in the North East, and also for a number of electrical retailers. It also provides advice and solutions to retailers and manufacturers for handling the forthcoming WEEE Directive legislation, which covers the disposal of end of life electronic and electrical goods
