Enva has signed terms with Shore Recycling to acquire the company’s electrical waste recycling plant in Perth, Scotland. The £10 million investment will see the facility, which was damaged by a fire earlier this year, back and fully operational by Spring 2024. As part of the redevelopment programme Enva has committed to attaining the highest possible recycling standards which will include ensuring that the new facility is accredited to the independently audited WEEELABEX standard.

Scotland has been without any domestic fridge recycling capacity since Shore’s facility was taken out of commission in February and the plans to rebuild it have been warmly welcomed by its former customers including REPIC and Valpak. Furthermore, it will address the current fire safety risks and environmental challenges associated with transporting electrical waste from Scotland to other parts of the UK for treatment. Once operational the site will be capable of processing all of Scotland’s waste fridges, recycling and recovering over 98% of their constituent components including metals, plastics, gasses, and polyurethane foam. It will also have capacity to recycle over 10,000 tonnes a year of small domestic appliances such as kettles, toasters, vacuum cleaners, power tools and coffee machines.

Commenting on the acquisition Enva’s Director, Barry Phillips said: “This investment will provide vital fridge recycling capacity in Scotland, removing the need for expensive and unsustainable transportation of fridges down to England. Scotland will benefit from a high-class piece of recycling infrastructure capable of recycling all its waste fridges and playing a key role in the circular economy.”

The acquisition follows Enva’s recent announcement that it is investing to double the fridge processing capacity at its Toomebridge WEEE recycling facility in Northern Ireland. Work there is well underway and once completed it will ensure there is enough domestic capacity to process all the waste fridges arising on the island of Ireland. It will also provide Enva with valuable continuity and resilience capacity for other parts of the UK should it be required.

About Enva

Enva is one of the UK and Ireland’s leading recycling and resource recovery companies with a turnover £294m (FY22) and over 1600 employees. More than 20,0000 customers are serviced from 34 facilities which use the latest technology to maximise the recovery of valuable secondary materials. In doing so Enva significantly reduces carbon emissions and pressure on the earth’s limited natural resources.

Over 96% of all the waste processed by Enva is diverted from landfill and in 2022 the company helped avoid 336,000 tonnes of CO2 as a result of its operations. This is more than eleven times the emissions resulting from its own operations. BY 2025 Enva is committed to improving this net Green House Gas (GHG) impact to fifteen times and increasing the percentage of revenue derived from the sale of recovered materials to over 50%.