The company is primarily involved in the recycling, re-use and refurbishment of waste electrical and electronic equipment, or WEEE as it is popularly known. Recent changes to UK legislation now require the proper collection, transport and recycling of a wide range of materials, which have now been classified as hazardous waste. These include, but are not limited to refrigerators, televisions, computers monitors and fluorescent lamps.

'When we first started the business in 2005 our first trucks were purchased used, which was a big mistake,'comments Reco-Vie director, Mark Hadley. 'They had so much downtime, which resulted not only in lost collections, but much management time was wasted on overseeing repairs, arranging sport hire trucks and rescheduling missed collections.

'As our business grew, so did the pressure to minimise the 'hassle factor' associated with our transport operation, so we awarded a three-year outsourcing contract to Ryder for the provision, initially, of two new 7.5 ton trucks.  These provide us with all the outstanding reliability youâ'd expect from new trucks, plus we enjoy fixed costs which ensure our transport costs stay on budget.'

It is currently estimated that some 6 million old TVs/computer monitors and approximately 3 million old fridges are being discarded every year and while all the discarded electrical and electronic items make up just 0.5% of all UK waste, it has created a business that is growing year on year and is currently worth approximately £200 million a year and Reco-Vie is on target to be a major player in the sector.