In2tec Unveils Groundbreaking £1.5m Facility for Electronic Component Recovery

In2tec, a British firm specialising in sustainable electronics, has launched a pioneering £1.5 million ReCYCLE™ facility designed to recover and remanufacture electronic components for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). This advanced centre utilises the company’s proprietary ReUSE® and ReCYCLE™ technologies to address the growing challenges of electronic waste and component scarcity.

Emma Armstrong, Sustainable Electronics Ambassador at In2tec, highlighted the urgency of rethinking electronic component lifecycle management. She explained, “Component recovery at scale needs a different approach at the design and manufacturing phase. Electronic components are often intended for 20+ years of life, but on average are used for less than 4 years. More than a billion mobile phones and 300 million laptops are produced annually, and our appetite for all things tech is increasing rapidly. Reusing viable components brings substantial financial and environmental benefits.”

Traditional methods of recovering components, such as desoldering, have long been employed by OEMs but remain costly and yield low returns. The stress inflicted on components during reclamation often compromises their viability. Furthermore, common recycling techniques tend to be inefficient, destroy valuable materials, and generate high emissions and energy consumption.

Armstrong emphasised the limitations of current recycling practices, stating, “The cost heavily outweighs the gain, hence why we now face a significant ewaste problem. Electronics recycling recovers a fraction of the precious materials used to manufacture them, and the valuable components are lost. Millions of tonnes of ewaste are also ‘recycled’ informally and unsafely in the developing world each year.”

Electronic waste is classified as hazardous due to the presence of toxic substances such as dioxins, lead, and mercury, which pose serious risks to human health and the environment when improperly processed. Armstrong warned, “Inferior recycling of ewaste is a threat to public health and safety.”

In2tec’s ReUSE® and ReCYCLE™ technologies offer a scalable, non-destructive solution that allows electronic components to be “unzipped” from devices without damage, preserving their functionality for repair, refurbishment, or second-life applications. These technologies are unique in the market, combining recoverability by design with an ultra-low energy recovery process suitable for various substrates including FR4, aluminium, PET, PI, and biomaterials.

The facility not only supports component recovery but also provides OEMs and contract electronics manufacturers (CEMs) the option to licence the technology for in-house use. Benefits of adopting these technologies include creating internal stocks of validated parts, reducing lead time volatility, mitigating exposure to raw material price fluctuations, and lowering development costs by reusing components across design iterations.

Armstrong described the facility as a world-first, stating, “This is a world-first – the only true electronics recycling facility for the recovery and reuse of components. The production and recovery lines are in place to support our customers and can also be demonstrated for OEMs looking to implement a solution in their own facilities under licence.”