Turning old appliances into new raw materials

Every day, REMONDIS Electrorecycling processes the products that local residents and industrial businesses no longer need in its modern, Weeelabex and Cenelec-approved dismantling centres.
The very first step taken by these facilities is to unload the fridges and freezers from the vehicle, container or skip they were transported in. The cables are then cut off and the contents removed from the appliances (such as the shelves and any residue).

The next stage is to categorise the appliances as almost 30% of the fridges handed in still contain chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The first step of the actual recycling process involves removing the blowing agents and oil from the appliances. This is the stage where all pollutants are removed – an essential step for protecting the environment.

After this has been completed, the compressor and capacitor are removed and the appliance then transported to the shredders on conveyor belts. Once the appliance has been cut up using a carefully controlled system of shredding facilities, the different types of material can then be separated from each other. REMONDIS Electrorecycling has a variety of systems to do this: the steel fractions are recovered with magnets, the aluminium and copper with specialist separators for non-ferrous metals, and the recycled plastics with air classifier separators.
As the insulation material used in cooling appliances is made of polyurethane, this material is also recovered separately and any pollutants removed so that it can be sent on to industry for further processing.

REMONDIS Electrorecycling GmbH belongs to the TSR Group. The TSR Group has various companies across Europe that process over 450,000 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
In addition to REMONDIS Electrorecycling GmbH, our specialists at MIREC BV in Eindhoven (NL) and Mirec NV in Singt-Niklaas (BE) process and recycle small household appliances right down to the very last gram. They ensure that absolutely all copper, all aluminium and all printed circuit boards are recovered. What's more, they also give hardware a second life so that it can be returned to market for reuse. METRADE, a company based in Austria, focuses on recycling small household appliances as well as office and telecommunications equipment. It makes the most of its modern shredder facility to produce top quality recycled raw materials. Our colleagues at M&R Recycling Solutions GmbH also recycle small household appliances. Moreover, they also specialise in separating non-ferrous metals from large-scale shredder facilities as well as in recycling plastics and fine processing residual material from screening drums.