3 questions for David Wampfler

Mr Wampfler, in August 2023, the federal government banned the manufacture and import of mercury-containing light sources. Despite this, you recently put a new plant into operation that specialises in mercury-containing light sources. Why does that make sense?
Our treatment plant fulfils the latest standards and sets new benchmarks in Switzerland in the processing and treatment of recyclable materials. We are the only recycling company that can process both mercury-containing lamps and flat screens as well as lamps and flat screens that are already based on LED technology at the same site. So we offer everything under one roof. The specially optimised plant also extracts rare industrial metals, critical raw materials and rare earths in addition to the harmful substances of concern. This is unique in Switzerland. Depending on the type of light source, the proportion of recyclable materials recovered (recycling rate) is between 92 and 94%. The remainder is mercury-containing fluorescent powder, which is extracted and disposed of in accordance with the applicable regulations.

The recycling of mercury-containing light sources is associated with high risks. How do you protect people and the environment from the highly toxic lamp powder during the recycling process?
The lamps are processed in our modern plant with a vacuum chamber. This has various safety measures. These include various filters, for example. Our employees also wear protective suits during the entire work process. Before our plant was officially commissioned, various safety measurements were also carried out at various locations, on employees and in the surrounding area. This ensured that the prescribed limit values were adhered to everywhere. Since then, we have been measuring the mercury levels at the prescribed locations on a weekly basis and carrying out annual urine and blood tests on our employees. We work closely with SUVA on this.

Due to the ban on mercury-containing light sources, the proportion of LED light sources will increase massively in the coming years. Are your systems prepared for this?
Yes, definitely! Even if the LED light sources will not always have as long a service life as sometimes promised, we can process the quantities well and then turn the fractions into secondary raw materials in our optical sorting plant.