Mercury Recycling has been appointed to collect and recycle all fluorescent tubes and sodium lamps from John Lewis and Waitrose branches throughout the UK. The arrangement ensures that the 36 John Lewis service buildings and 20 ‘hub' Waitrose branches covered by the scheme are supplied with a number of containers for collection and recycling by Mercury Recycling operatives. A key element of the company's environmental charter is to reduce all waste and to ensure any waste that is produced is disposed of responsibly. John Lewis Partnership has an agreement with the Recolight Compliance Scheme, which finances the separate collection and treatment of waste. Recolight is a Producer Compliance scheme which undertakes its Member's obligations under the UK WEEE regulations.
Lamps and tubes are replaced as and when necessary by maintenance staff and stored in Mercury's specially designed, secure containers. Once each container is full it is collected by Mercury and another empty container is left on site. All containers are provided with highly visible health and safety warnings in order to comply with health & safety regulations and ensuring the maintenance staff comply fully with all waste legislation.
Once collected, the used lamps are taken to Mercury's reprocessing facility in Manchester, the largest Lamp Recycling Plant in Europe. Here they are treated to remove the Mercury and are broken down into their component parts for further reuse/recycling. This includes distilling mercury from the phosphors in the lamps at temperatures of around 800°C to reclaim pure liquid mercury. Mercury Recycling is one of the very few companies in the UK able to provide the distillation and recycling of mercury which is then reused by lamp manufacturers and other companies in a wide range of applications.
