Mobiles, dishwashers and fridges – University experts are waging war on Europe’s poor plastics recycling record

A team from the University of Northampton is playing a crucial role in developing a major recycling system to deal with Europe’s growing problem of electrical equipment waste.

The electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) sector, which produces anything from mobile phones and laptops through to washing machines and fridges, is one of the most resource-intensive industries globally.

While there are established systems in place for collecting, sorting and recycling of scrap metal produced by the EEE sector, the same cannot be said for scrap plastic.

To tackle the problem, the European Commission adopted a ‘circular economy’ action plan in 2015 with the aim of saving energy and the amount of resources used by the EEE sector, lowering carbon dioxide emissions and the amount of plastic waste produced.

The University of Northampton is one of 16 partners of the PolyCE project, which aims to achieve this. The institution’s main role will be to design the logistics process required to solve the plastics waste problem.

“We need to improve the collecting and recycling of plastics when products have come to the end of their life, but in order to do this, a systematic transformation is needed,” said Liam Fassam, who heads up the University’s Institute of Logistics, Infrastructure, Supply and Transport (LIST).

“There needs to be collaboration between every player in the supply chain, including producers of plastics, equipment designers and manufacturers, dismantlers and recyclers.”

In addition to Liam’s expertise in logistics and the supply chain, the University team also boasts one of the world’s leading authorities in waste management.

Professor of Sustainable Wastes Management, Professor Margaret Bates, has been appointed PolyCE’s innovation manager.

She said: “We are very excited to work with such a great consortium of international experts and pioneering companies.”