Let us recycle your old drives and motors

ABB is offering to recycle old drives and motors as part of a scheme to help users to replace their old equipment with newer, more efficient systems. One reason for targeting the replacement market is that it is expected to account for 40-45% of all drives sales in the coming year.

Under a six-point scheme, ABB`s Drives Alliance and Motor Service partners will: assess an installation and determine the potential savings of upgrading; offer engineering guidance and financial assistance; remove and recycle the old drives and motors; and install replacement equipment.

ABB reckons that up to 90%, by weight, of its drives can be re-used or recycled. Each drive and motor will be stripped down and separated in categories such as metals, plastics and PCBs. Some parts, such as PCB modules, will be tested and kept as spares while the rest of the drive will be recycled. The scheme will not be restricted to ABB motors and drives.

Ian Rennie, recently appointed president of ABB`s Automation Technology Products division, says that the company is well placed to implement the impending Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive which will require manufacturers to take back and recycle equipment that they make. This form of waste is growing by 3-5% a year - three times faster than municipal waste.

The WEEE directive is due to come into force by 2008, despite protests from UK manufacturers that it will cost them £1bn to implement. The European Commission hopes that it will encourage manufacturers to make their products easier to recycle.

Rennie says that there will be no extra charge for ABB`s recycling service. He reckons it will add less than 1% to the company`s costs.