The Normandy company was founded in 2019 in Tourville-les-Ifs, near Le Havre, and is the only one in the world making 100% recycled metals, including platinoids. WeeeCycling won the 2030 French Critical Metals call to tender and is now expanding to significantly increase its production capacity and meet demand.
Platinum, rhodium, palladium, ruthenium, iridium, silver and even copper: as well as getting rarer, some so-called critical metals (which ironically are essential to making them) are still being mined to the detriment of the environment. In Normandy, Serge Kimbel has found an alternative.
After an international career in water treatment, the engineering graduate with a strong environmental vision got into repurposing computer equipment. He founded his first business in 2008: Morphosis, specialising in recycling e-waste in Tourville-les-Ifs, near Fécamp. “After exploring the recycling process, I got the idea of a circular approach to strategic metals, including platinoids, which were only extracted from mines,” he says.
Key Figures Highlighting WeeeCycling's Critical Metals Recycling Impact
- 35 millions Euros in turnover/year
- 130 employees and plans to recruit a hundred more by 2027
- 15,000 tons of industrial waste recycled every year
Rare metals made entirely from recycling
Serge Kimbel began rolling out a process to return these metals to their original state on an industrial scale. He launched WeeeCycling (Weee stands for Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) in 2019. The company collects waste from manufacturers (co-products, off-cuts, production line trimmings, chemical sludge etc.) to extract and process the precious materials so they can return to their production lines.
This enables us to product low-carbon critical metals for our clients in a circular economy. They get three things out of it: they reduce their environmental footprint, improve resilience and save money given the raw materials are becoming rarer and more expensive.
As the home of WeeeCycling, Normandy is currently the only region making 100% recycled rare metals entirely from waste. “Other projects have appeared on the scene, mainly among mining companies that are starting to bring recycling into their production. But they don’t go the whole way as their metal is 80% from the mine and 20% from recycling,” says Serge Kimbel.
A benchmark factory in Normandy
Selling low-carbon metals without considering our own impact makes no sense. Reducing our carbon footprint is a big part of our business strategy and affects what our colleagues do every day.
WeeeCycling processes 15,000 tons of industrial waste every year to produce thousands of tons of critical metals at its Normandy factory which is designed to keep its carbon footprint as low as possible. Its consumption of water, energy and chemicals and its waste generation are all gone over with a fine-tooth comb to find areas for improvement. For example, they’ve significantly reduced their use of chemicals by reusing and repurposing them. Major investment will soon see the energy produced from the heat of fuser units in the factory recovered to reduce WeeeCycling’s energy bills and carbon footprint.
Normandy, a prime location for WeeeCyling
The price of highly sought-after critical metals will continue to rise in the next few years… Especially if they’ve been recycled. The European Commission approved the CRMA (Critical Raw Materials Act) in March 2024, which states that 25% of critical metals should come from recycled metal. “It’s doable for some materials like aluminium, because the metal that major manufacturers sell already contains over 25% recycled metal. But there’s a long way to go when it comes to platinoids and silver. That’s why manufacturers are so keen on our metal, as it offsets the low amount of recycled metal on the market,” says Serge Kimbel.
Normandy has everything our business could wish for, with property available immediately, well-developed logistics routes and quality of life for our staff. We're also part of a beneficial ecosystem with manufacturers and projects, particularly in the renewable energy sector, in line with our business.
WeeeCycling won the call to tender for the 2030 French Critical Metals project in 2022. The idea is to nurture local critical metal production projects and reduce reliance on raw materials from mines among manufacturers. With this in mind, WeeeCyling is now increasing its production capacity by building a new factory on its current site.
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Thematics
