Sims reveals WEEE plastics plan after latest acquisition

Sims Recycling Solutions will soon have an outlet for plastic derived from waste electronic equipment, following the acquisition of German recycling specialist M+R.

The acquisition of M+R - Metal and Recycling – for the equivalent of just over £20 million, gives Sims a £2 million processing plant in Bergkamen, which recycles 100,000 tonnes of metallic and non-metallic materials each year.

The plant already has waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling capabilities, but one of the new owners' initial plans is to develop plastic recycling technology at the site.

This would allow the plant to deal with materials from waste electronics collected across Europe.

Graham Davy, managing director for Sims in Europe and North America, said: "Our immediate post-deal objective is to combine our technical talent and process knowledge to install a pioneering plastics separation plant at the Bergkamen site to deliver further value added for our businesses in Europe.

"This will mean plastic derived from electronics recycled by Sims will not have to be sent to traditional plastic recycling havens," Mr Davy added.

Europe
The company told letsrecycle.com that the new plant would allow Sims to recycle plastics within Europe, rather than sending it further afield to places like China.

A spokesman for the company suggested once there was enough demand in the UK, Sims could bring the plastics recycling technology to this country. At this point in time, the company said it was more cost effective to send plastics from WEEE collected in the UK to Germany to be processed.

Mr Davy also hailed the acquisition as his company's first step into Europe's largest waste electronics recycling market. While the UK will bring new WEEE recycling regulations into force early next year, Germany began its new producer responsibility scheme – under Europe's WEEE Directive, earlier this year (see letsrecycle.com story).

He said: "We are delighted to welcome M+R into our business. We have good opportunities to realise procurement, technical, marketing and process synergies. We have of course made our first step into Europe’s largest market and the management team is studying further opportunities to grow our presence in Europe.

"M+R enjoys an excellent infrastructure and in common with SRS, has an innovative approach to deliver environmentally led recycling solutions," he added.

Original text is here