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National recycling award for market leading IT recycler, RDC Witham

National recycling award for market leading IT recycler, RDC Witham

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November 2010

Computer reuse and recycling specialist RDC has been awarded a prestigious Award for Environmental Excellence from the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM). The award is for Recycling Performance of the Year by an SME (Small Medium Enterprise, an organisation with less than 250 employees).

RDC's managing director Gerry Hackett welcomed the award. "To win a recycling award from the CIWM makes us feel like the Recyclers' Recycler" enthused Gerry. "This is a great tribute to our recycling services operation and the hard work they have put in over the past 2 years to increase the reuse of components and achieve zero waste disposed of to landfill."

A CIWM spokesperson said "The CIWM Recycling Performance of the Year award is designed to recognise excellent performance in recycling across all industries".

"The judges were impressed how the RDC entry showed that a business model based on reuse and zero waste can contribute to the green economy and creation of new jobs. One of the big opportunities from recycling is the recovery of scarce materials and RDC show that the precious metals recovered from PCs exceeds the treatment and recycling costs. Materials security will become an increasingly important issue for the UK and this shows how recycling can be part of the solution".

The award was presented to RDC at a CIWM ceremony held at the Marriott Grosvenor Square, London, attended by 300 people from the industry. The awards were presented by popular BBC journalist Kate Silverton and the Recycling Performance SME Award was co-presented by Raj Iqbal, CEO of award sponsors Choice Waste Management.

Gary Griffiths, RDC's Head of Sustainability and a CIWM Member, noted, "This year, RDC has achieved its zero landfill ambitions with general waste reprocessed into refuse derived fuel for use in power stations in place of gas and oil fuel. RDC already exceeds draft EU reuse targets for waste electrical and electronic equipment."

RDC's new Recycling Department opened in 2009 and reclaims components from waste computers and ICT equipment. In 2009, 350 tonnes of IT components were reclaimed for re-use from waste, whilst RDC recycled more than 2,500 tons of waste IT and packaging.

"The majority of IT equipment processed by RDC is sold for reuse as whole working units" adds Gary. "Reuse not only earns revenue for former users but is environmentally more attractive than recycling because we save on not consuming materials and energy in making new computers. Reuse is estimated to be twenty times more efficient than recycling according to UN studies and is seen as more sustainable."

"The only thing we do not recycle" adds Gary, "is customers' confidential data - that is all destroyed".




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Alex Brooks / Kate Mills
Rocket PR
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Tessa Freeman
PR Manager
tessa.freeman@computacenter.com
+44 (0) 7801 452076