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Thomas Papageorgiou, compliance director
at Anamet (Greece)
At conferences, Papageorgiou always provides in-depth
overviews on the ups-and-downs in e-scrap, globally and in his home
country. As for the downs, he says the pandemic had a devastating
impact on electronics recycling sector in Greece. During six weeks of
lockdown in 2020, e-scrap collection in his country dropped by up to
80%. The average amount of e-scrap collected in Greece under normal
circumstances ranges between 45 000 and 50 000 tonnes a year. Greek
retail shops closed their doors while smaller scrap dealers stopped col-
lecting. ‘In terms of sourcing material it was a complete disaster; the
whole collection system collapsed,’ noted Papagiorgiou during one of
BIR’s online conventions.
AO Recycling (UK)
Fridge recycling may still be a niche but
online retailer AO has proved it’s a valid
business model. AO Recycling handles more than
700 000 fridges a year, which represents one-fifth
of the appliances currently thrown away annually in
the UK. Its dedicated recycling plant in Telford
serves an area which has 40% of the UK’s popula-
tion and therefore significant scrap arisings. At the
heart of its equipment is ‘Bertha’; a 80 tonne
shredding machine built by Andritz MeWa that can
smash around 100 fridges in a single hour.
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73
Emmanuel Katrakis, sec-
retary-general of EuRIC
(Belgium)
EuRIC is the umbrella organisation representing
the interests of the European recycling industries.
The organisation represents more than 5 500 com-
panies together generating an annual turnover of
about EUR 95 billion.
Katrakis has been with EuRIC since its start some
seven years ago. We believe he is doing a good
job using every opportunity to lobby for EuRIC and
its members, most recently on topics related to the
EU Green Deal. Katrakis is frequently asked to
speak at conferences and – during the pandemic –
online events.
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