A new business created in order to recycle electrical and electronic waste is to begin trading in Wales this week.

Launched by two former Panasonic employees Alun Haines and Richard Compton, Rade (UK) Ltd will provide a recovery and recycling service for electrical and electronic products.

The company is due to begin work from its Treforest industrial estate premises, near Pontypridd, from today (September 5).

Rade will handle all categories of electronic waste, but will focus primarily on the disassembly of electronic products including those containing cathode ray tubes – such as televisions and PC monitors.

The company's service - which will include collection, disassembly, recycling and data destruction – will be made available to manufacturers, retailers, local authorities, schools and colleges and waste management companies across the UK.

The plant will begin by having the capacity to deal with around 250,000 CRT units, but the company hopes to reach half a million once it has brought in equipment to separate panel and funnel glass from CRTs itself.

Storing

Alun Haines, director Rade, said: "We will be taking in redundant equipment and dismantling it before sending it off to reprocessors. We are currently in the process of acquiring equipment that will allow us to separate CRT glass ourselves. We will be storing the televisions and monitors on our site until the equipment is installed."

The former Panasonic employees decided to lunch the business after discovering the amount of electrical waste currently shipped to Europe from the UK for disposal. The two men went to the Wales Environment Trust for advice on setting the company up, and have said the company would not have got started without its help.

Under the European WEEE Directive, producers and retailers in the UK will become responsible for the collection and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) from June 2006.