A SOUTH WALES company is profiting from the nation’s unwanted fridges. Evans Logistics, based at Capital Valley Industrial Estate, Rhymney, takes apart unwanted fridges for all of Wales’ and for many English local authorities.
The company has recently spent £1.5m on a fridge de-manufacturing unit imported from Italy, now running at full capacity and capable of taking apart 1,200 old fridges a day.
The company was formed after Phillip Evans spotted a niche in the market created by external factors such as the Kyoto agreement, which required environmentally friendly methods of fridge disposal.
The company acquired the Capital Valley site 12 months ago for £1.4m and now employs 35 staff. It has seen turnover grow to over £3m in just 12 months. Its new dissembling plant was purchased with the assistance of Barclays.
The fridges are brought to the Rhymney site and stored under cover to prevent deterioration until they can be dissembled.
Staff remove all glass, rubber, shelving, gas and oil, together with fridge motors before the fridge carcass is passed into the machine.
Once inside the machine the entire fridge is shredded removing all metals before being ground into powder. The powder is then passed through a series of carbon filters to remove any harmful CFCs before the air is pumped back into the factory. The process recycles 97% of the fridge’s weight and produces steel, aluminium and copper, which can be sold for scrap value.
Company secretary Phillip Evans said, “The new plant will really enable us to tackle the fridge mountain we currently have on site and give us greater capacity to expand the business.”
From IC Wales