Mercury Recycling Limited

The business now operates from a 30,000 sq ft site in Trafford Park, which it describes as the largest dedicated lamp recycling facility in the UK. Its British designed plant has capacity to process 40 million lamps a year.

Street lighting lamps

Of particular relevance to highways, the company recycles SON and SOX sodium discharge lamps, which the company notes make up the bulk of UK street and highway lighting, together with other high intensity discharge lamps such as metal halide and MBFU. These lamps are classed as hazardous waste because of their sodium and mercury content. Mercury Recycling's fully automated plant can process more than 5,000 discharge lamps an hour, separating sodium, mercury, ferrous and non-ferrous metals and glass cullet, all of which go on to established markets.

Other services include Lampsafe, a 48 hour collection and delivery service for lamps at a single price, Bulbsafe for compact fluorescent, halogen and mercury vapour lamps, and Batterysafe, which supplies a container that is collected when full. The company also supplies bulk containers, including collapsible and lockable steel units, and packing tubes, and handles other mercury waste.