Since 2011, Recolight’s producer membership has more than doubled, from up from 73 at the end of 2010, to 180. And since it was established in 2007, Recolight has now recycled over a quarter of a billion lamps. That is equivalent to almost one lamp recycled per second, every second.
Over the same period, the UK’s lamp recycling rate has climbed from 26.0 per cent in 2010, to 43.6 per cent in 2015.
Welcoming the news, Recolight CEO Nigel Harvey said, ‘Over the last five years, we have seen some very material changes in the WEEE landscape. At the beginning of 2014, the new WEEE regulations came into force. These made the UK WEEE system much fairer, and ensured that WEEE charges were reflective of actual treatment costs. Then, in 2015, dual use was introduced. This change also made the UK system fairer, ensuring, in the case of lamps, that all lamp producers now pay their share of recycling costs.’
Harvey added, ‘The success of Recolight in the last five years can largely be attributed to the great team we have at the company, a very supportive board, and the commitment of our growing Lighting Producer membership.’
Commenting on the economics of lamp recycling in 2016, he said, ‘The dual use changes have had a particular impact on lamp recycling in 2016. The effect is that from the beginning of the year, most companies which collect waste lamps should be able to access free lamp recycling. However, at Recolight, we still come across many collectors and aggregators of business waste lamps that are being charged for their recycling. All too often, they are not aware that under the WEEE regulations, they should be able to access a free recycling service, funded by lamp producers.’
