Return of cores is a major issue for reman, and start-up firm ZeroNet Group is attempting to get to grips with unwanted electricals, saving them from landfill by a door-to-door collection after which they will be remanufactured. Speaking at the Scottish Institute for Remanufacturing’s annual conference in March, ZeroNet founder Paul McSweeney said: “Current models for waste recovery need to urgently migrate towards higher value recovery, otherwise the circular economy will never scale.”
He estimates that 500,000 tonnes of small waste electrical and electronic equipment are lost to landfill or elsewhere in the UK each year, with an estimated value between £50m and £2 billion. ZeroNet has created a reverse logistics scheme to be trialled in Aberdeen in the middle of 2017, which will attempt to become the world’s first ‘on-demand’ intelligent doorstep collection operation. It aims to do this by integrating existing logistics providers and a smart phone app.
