Electrical Waste Recycling Group has achieved approval from the UK Environment Agency to use a new mechanical process to recycle LCD flat screen televisions and monitors — a world’s first, the company says.
These flat panel displays contain mercury and become hazardous waste when they enter the waste stream.
The company gained approval to mechanically process the e-waste at its 5-acre site in Huddersfield.
According to Electrical Waste Recycling Group, the UK sees 1 million used flat panel displays entering the recycling market per month. Flat panel display recycling, when done manually, takes 15 minutes per display. The new process operates at a rate of one every 6 seconds, the company says.
A patent is pending for the invention and the company says it is in talks with key industry players to relieve the waste backlogs of old cathode ray tube televisions.
Also this week, Dell said it has helped developed an e-waste model for developing countries and opened East Africa’s first large-scale e-waste recycling hub.