“Our customers want to know – above anything else – that they are working with a fridge recycler that meets the gold standard when it comes to environmental protection, safety and sustainability,” says Victoria Halford, WEEE Compliance and Business Development Manager at EMR.
As the company opens its state-of-the-art fridge recycling plant at EMR Darlaston, Victoria believes her twin responsibilities – ensuring EMR is compliant as well as growing its customer base – will both be made much easier by this major investment in its service offering.
“Across all EMR sites in the UK, I look after compliance and make sure our operations are above and beyond legal requirements. In terms of the fridge plants, I am a lot more hands on, helping them resolve issues and maintaining the paperwork that our teams need to keep in line with our permits.”
While Victoria has made sure the new site is ready to immediately meet the standards required by all fridge recyclers in the UK, her ambitions for the plant go much further, ensuring EMR’s customers benefit from this state-of-the-art facility and even more materials enter into the circular economy.
Victoria’s career path began in the landfill industry, after studying geography at university.
“You see some unbelievable sights in a job like that. I was out in all weathers – either topping up my tan in the blistering summer sunshine or dealing with cold, muddy and wet conditions in winter.”
After moving into WEEE recycling for the first time at a mobile phone recycler, Victora eventually joined an environmental consultancy helping businesses achieve and maintain compliance in a range of areas. So, how does it feel to have switched from consultancy – supporting businesses to become compliant – to being involved with the process first hand?
“When you’re working in a consultancy, all you can do is to offer advice, whereas now I’m inside the fold making those decisions and seeing them through. Fortunately, we have a team filled with good people with a broad range of experiences and skills to bounce ideas off.
“It’s definitely more challenging but there’s also a bigger sense of achievement at the end of the day, too.”
With EMR’s Fridge Recycling Plant in Darlaston now open, this sense of achievement is only likely to grow in the months ahead. “I can’t wait to see the benefits it will now bring,” says Victoria.
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