The Recycling Programme

What is our recycling programme?

What can be recycled?

We are all responsible for using and re-using our finite resources. Recovering and recycling our used materials is more important than ever. It is estimated that 98% of materials from old HVAC equipment can be recycled. What happens to the different materials? 80% of recycled plastics are of a quality that can be used to manufacture new products, such as automotive parts, or in building and civil engineering materials. The remaining 20% are used for thermal recycling.

Mitsubishi Electric air conditioners use about 10% recycled plastic, and their domestic refrigerators use 17 to 21%. Other materials recovered such as iron, copper and aluminum are 100% recycled. These are taken over by professional contractors and reused as raw materials. Other rare earth materials, such as Gold, Silver and Neodymium are also recovered for re-use.

What happens to the refrigerant?

Refrigerants can harm the ozone layer and contribute to global warming if released into the atmosphere, so the safe extraction and handling of refrigerants is a top priority.

When decommissioning old HVAC equipment, the F-Gas Approved contractor must extract any refrigerant gas in the system in a process called ‘degassing’ (reclaiming). Any collected gas should then be taken in a cylinder to a refrigerant processor, who will analyse the gas and assess whether it can be re-used, blended with another refrigerant for re-use or whether its chemical composition means that it needs to be destroyed.

At the Enva recycling plant, any residual refrigerant in the redundant HVAC unit is safely removed and processed on site through Geri (Gas Energy Recovery Incinerator), which ensures these gases are destroyed by high temperature incineration. Geri can also supply hot water and heating to be used in the plant.