County Durham based Pacifica Group, the national home services company, has entered into a new partnership with GAP Waste to prevent domestic refrigerators being sent to landfill, utilising specialist technology that recycles 99.9 percent of the appliances’ components.
As a result of this agreement, the national home services company will send fridges that can no longer be repaired or maintained to GAP’s facility in Gateshead for processing and ultimately prevent any of the units from ending up in landfill.
One of the UK’s largest providers of home services, Pacifica Group works with a number of leading electrical and domestic appliance manufacturers to provide repair, installation and maintenance services and will be engaging with its client base to support this ground-breaking recycling operation.
GAP’s £5.7million recycling plant is the only one of its kind in the North of England and has the capacity to recycle hundreds of thousands of fridges every year.
The process involves stripping fridges of parts, including gas-filled compressors, with the shells fed into the plant where they are crushed and separated into a range of metal and plastic materials that can be recycled for other uses.
Collecting more than 100,000 fridges every year from across the North, GAP works with local authorities and organisations producing volumes of recyclable fridges in excess of 100 units.
Pacifica Group is one of the UK’s largest providers of home services, including appliance and heating systems repair and maintenance, and product warranty solutions. It handles in excess of 4,500 jobs per week and comprises of Pacifica Home Services, Pacifica Appliance Services and UK Warranty.
Kevin Brown, CEO of Pacifica Group, said: “We work to keep fridges and other white goods repaired and maintained for as long as possible, but when they reach end-of-life and it is important to offer an environmentally-focused solution for their disposal.
“Our ambition is to send absolutely zero product to landfill and this partnership with GAP will go a long way to meeting this strategy and addressing a major issue for UK recycling and the environment.”
Peter Moody, Group Managing Director of GAP, said: “This partnership with Pacifica Group is vital and it will ensure that all refrigeration units which reach end of life are effectively recycled with 99.9% of the resulting material being reused in manufacturing.
“As one of only two plants in the UK with this capability, future-proofed against upcoming EU regulations, we are working hard to build relationships with companies like Pacifica Group to ensure that more fridges can be recycled and reduce their impact on the environment.”
