Excel Fortune Holdings Ltd has been confirmed that Europe’s largest mobile phone recycling facility will be established in Wales, UK to service and supply what has until now been a fragmented supply chain.

The company, headed up by telecoms industry veteran Mike Bandeira, has committed GBP6million to the venture with an estimated total start-up investment, including capital turnover, of GBP15million. The project has also been offered funding by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Once fully operational Excel’s European logistics hub and company headquarters, a 120,000 sq ft facility will becomeand will have the capacity to handle up to 500,000 mobile handsets per month.

Europe currently contributes around 125 million phones per year to a growing stockpile of unused goods and the need to convert them into reusable stock has become increasingly urgent. 95% of the handsets collected in the UK will be recycled and then sold to developing countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Dubai and Bolivia. Excel currently has contracts in place in each of these countries, to supply phones at 60% of the cost of a new phone.

References:

• Environmental Internet and Phone Company Weighs in on E-Waste
• Companies Keep Cell Phones out of Trash and Turn Them into Cash
• Dangerous technology — Mobiles should be kept away from hospital beds
• As Tech Trash Piles Up, E-Junk Recycling Still in its Infancy