How Houghton-based company Pacifica Group plans to recycle its fridges in bid to protect environment

Pacifica CEO Kevin Brown (left) and Peter Moody, Group Managing Director of GAP, at the fridge recycling plant in the North East.

Pacifica Group, the national home services company, has entered into a partnership with GAP Waste who will utilise its specialist technology to recycle 99.9% of the appliances’ components.

The company will send fridges that can no longer be repaired or maintained to GAP’s facility in Gateshead for processing and ultimately prevent any of the units from ending up in landfill.

Pacifica Group works with a number of leading electrical and domestic appliance manufacturers to provide repair, installation and maintenance services and will be engaging with its client base to support this ground-breaking recycling operation.

GAP’s £5.7million recycling plant is the only one of its kind in the North of England and has the capacity to recycle hundreds of thousands of fridges every year.

The process involves stripping fridges of parts, including gas-filled compressors, with the shells fed into the plant where they are crushed and separated into a range of metal and plastic materials that can be recycled for other uses.

Collecting more than 100,000 fridges every year from across the north, GAP works with local authorities and organisations producing volumes of recyclable fridges in excess of 100 units.

Kevin Brown, Pacifica Group CEO, said: “We work to keep fridges and other white goods repaired and maintained for as long as possible, but when they reach end-of-life and it is important to offer an environmentally-focused solution for their disposal.

“Our ambition is to send zero product to landfill and this partnership with GAP will go a long way to meeting this strategy and addressing a major issue for UK recycling and the environment.”

Peter Moody, GAP group managing director, said: “This partnership is vital and it will ensure that all refrigeration units which reach end of life are effectively recycled with 99.9% of the resulting material being reused in manufacturing.

“As one of only two plants in the UK with this capability, future-proofed against upcoming EU regulations, we are working hard to build relationships with companies like Pacifica Group to ensure that more fridges can be recycled and reduce their impact on the environment.”