Background There is a hidden environmental cost to Europe’s huge need for electricity. Particularly in cities, power is provided through underground cables and uses oil-containing condensers. Scrap condensers and cables are a growing environmental problem due to lack of effective methods for separating components. These components include a mixture of plastic, rubber and heavy metals such as copper and lead. Some underground cables and condensers contain the persistent toxic organic pollutant PCB, one of the permanent organic pollutants the EU is committed to eliminate under international agreement. Many cables and condensers also contain oil, which must be collected and treated to avoid environmental damage. At present, cables not being used are hidden underground or, with the condensers, sent for disposal. Many thousand tonnes of underground cables and condensers are scrapped in the EU each year and the beneficiary estimates that the total amount of metals (such as copper and aluminium) currently not being recovered from cable and condenser waste in Europe is worth €1.7 billion. Previous attempts to recover metals from scrap cables often involved burning them. This practice is now banned in the EU because it can cause toxic emissions. Objectives The project aimed to demonstrate a new technical approach to dismantling and recycling of oil-contaminated underground cables and condensers by converting them into secondary raw materials. It sought to: Reduce the amount of waste from these products; Improve the working environment within associated recycling processes; Develop the recovered material into commercial product for steel and other metal producers; Demonstrate cost-effectiveness of the new processes; Establish pilot projects at the beneficiary’s facilities in Sweden and Poland, in order to demonstrate and compare the new processes. It was hoped that the new methods, if economically feasible, would reduce temptations to apply inexpensive but environmentally hazardous metal-recovery practices - particularly the burning of cables. For the industry, the project aimed to bring health and safety improvements in the business of scrap treatment, to increase the attractiveness of the scrap and waste business, and to deliver improved productivity. Results The Waste Reduction LIFE project developed two separate processes to handle underground cable and condenser waste. The process to handle the waste condensers works well and has a higher capacity than other methods: 2.5 – 3.0 tonnes per day. It fulfils occupational safety and environmental standards - especially the control of the pollutant PCB - and has resulted in a technically and commercially feasible innovation now in use. The capacity is 90% higher than the traditional manual process and the costs are 50% lower. It can be considered a best practice. This process works by feeding the waste condensers on a conveyor towards a machine that punctures them and drains off the contained oil which is analysed for PCB before further processing. The waste product then goes on for cutting, dividing and recycling of all possible components. Unfortunately, the different sawing equipment developed to handle cable waste was not successful. It worked technically, but could not be used at the commercially required speed capacity because it generated too much heat and smoke in the working environment and risked the uncontrolled escape of PCB from the waste. The beneficiary is to redevelop this cable-waste processing equipment, seeking to apply the same type of technical solutions as in the condenser-processing equipment. As technical development is to continue beyond the life of the project, it is expected that further results will be communicated by the beneficiary when commercial feasibility is reached. If successful in the long run, the project will contribute to practical solutions which can then be converted to regulation. Some employees from the beneficiary's daughter company in Poland - where cable-waste is a particular problem - were trained within the project to use the equipment and provided with a fuller understanding of the environmental issues around treatment of the waste.