Coolrec is specialized in recycling of electrical and electronic equipment into high-quality recovered plastics, metals and other secondary raw materials. In other words, Coolrec operates in the ‘technical nutrient cycle’ of the Butterfly Diagram.

We are at the facility in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, where refrigerators and washing machines are recycled. Coolrec director Arjen Wittekoek talks about the sorting process at Coolrec. He describes how this process is changing from simply sorting different types of materials, to actively ‘harvesting’ specific materials and parts from discarded equipment.

MAIN TAKEAWAYS

• Increasingly, recycling companies like Coolrec regard themselves as raw material suppliers instead of recycling companies.
• In the project mentioned by Arjen Wittekoek, Coolrec extracts cast iron parts from Miele washing machines and delivers these back to Miele for reuse in their new washing machines. Miele is a German producer of household appliances.