DCW acquires Plymouth e-waste recycling firm

The South West’s leading independent commercial waste management and recycling firm DCW has acquired electrical collection and recycling company Collectrical.

After facing the challenges of a tough economy, Plymouth-based social enterprise Collectrical has been acquired by DCW, allowing DCW to expand the scope of its services in electrical waste management and grow its client base across Devon and Cornwall.

In addition to benefitting from the regular services that Collectrical provides, including appliance repair, stripping equipment for spare parts and donations of repaired machines, customers of Collectrical will now have access to DCW’s portfolio of Zero to Landfill services.

The family-run firm based in Exeter offers a range of recycling services for materials including mixed waste, specialist plastics, confidential waste and hazardous waste. Since 2004, DCW has provided a fully compliant Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) recycling collection service to support its customers to meet their own obligations under the evolving regulations.

DCW’s WEEE recycling offering has already expanded this year as the firm acquired the assets of South West Computer Recycling in January 2022, extending the reach of its WEEE service nationwide.

Acquiring Collectrical means that DCW has welcomed 50 new active clients which comes after the Zero to Landfill company acquired 800 clients from South West Computer Recycling and grew by 27% in 2021 with a turnover of £15million.

Simon Almond, Managing Director at DCW, said: “Acquiring Collectrical means that DCW can continue the excellent work that founders Sonia and Alex have done to raise awareness across the region of the importance of recycling electrical waste. They’ve saved valuable resources from going to landfill, re-using materials wherever they can, and we will ensure this legacy lives on.

“The UK is the second largest producer of WEEE in the world which is alarming. Electronic waste is not only incredibly valuable as it contains raw materials such as gold, silver and copper, but it’s also detrimental to the environment if it ends up in landfill. Our expansion will allow us to help even more companies recycle their WEEE responsibly and contribute to the circular economy, making a positive difference to the rate of WEEE recycling in the UK.”

The new clients all benefit from DCW’s sustainable approach to waste collection and recycling. DCW was the first waste management company to introduce a Zero to Landfill solution in the South West, ensuring that all materials that can be recycled, are.

Emptying in excess of 10,000 bins per week with over 70 vehicles in its fleet, DCW collects mixed waste from its clients in a single vehicle, reducing the number of journeys made and minimising its CO2 emissions. Each time a bin is emptied, around 3.04kg of CO2 is emitted, so collecting waste in a single bin, rather than separating it into different containers, reduces CO2 emissions.

For more information about DCW’s services, visit www.dcw.co.uk or call 01392 361300. For more information on DCW’s WEEE recycling service, email weee@dcw.co.uk.