Preston recycler becomes Designated Collection Facility

The Recycling Lives Centre on Preston's Essex Street is now officially registered with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as a Designated Collection Facility (DCF), making it part of a national network of collection points for domestically produced waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Recycling Lives, a long-established family business that offers a variety of closed loop recycling and waste management solutions, made the decision to become a DCF, in part, as a response to the closure of four of Lancashire's Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs), all of which were also DCFs, formerly located in Garstang, Great Harwood, Bacup and Colne.

The newly designated Recycling Lives Centre will become the closest DCF for householders who previously used the Garstang DCF to dispose of their domestic WEEE material. And, while only the Recycling Lives Centre on Essex Street is currently registered as a DCF, the organisation also plans to seek the same designation for its other sites around the area.

Household-originating waste can now be taken to the Recycling Lives Centre free of charge by members of the public. Waste collected is segregated into six categories:

• Large Domestic Appliances (washing machines, dishwashers, tumble dryers)
• Small Domestic Appliances (irons, kettles, toasters)
• Gas Discharge Lamps (fluorescent tubes, sodium lamps)
• Cooling Equipment (fridges and freezers)
• Display Screen Equipment (televisions, monitors both CRT and flat panel)
• Portable batteries

All of the materials collected are able to be processed at one of Recycling Lives' AATF's (Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities).

Recycling Lives is a recycler with a difference. In 2009, the company opened its own social welfare charity offering homeless and unemployed people the chance to undertake a six-stage residential programme at its Essex Street premises.

The programme, which comprises a range of training, work experience and education opportunities, as well as personal holistic care and support, aims to help society's most marginalised people get back to work and independent living and is funded entirely by Recycling Lives' commercial operations.

Recycling Lives new status as a DCF will not only ensure that domestic WEEE materials continue to be recycled in the North West, but will help to spread the word about the good work that the organisation undertakes and bring in even more recyclable WEEE than before.