Recycling of cables – More than “just” copper

Many recycling companies in Switzerland and across the European Union (EU) process cables. These facilities recycle cables recovered through manual disassembly and mechanical sorting of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and other types, such as underground cables and power lines extracted from buildings. As part of secondary recipients audits, TK SENS/Swico auditors visit companies that purchase cables from the SENS eRecycling and Swico Recycling systems. These audits focus on recovering recyclable materials and assessing pollutant content in output fractions.

Fundamentals of cable recycling

WEEE cables are recycled either in facilities specifically equipped for cables or in those used for fine processing of metals, including metals from the processing of WEEE. When cables are accepted, it is ensured that the different cable types are correctly separated. Special care is taken with hazardous waste, such as lead cables and cables containing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) oil. The latter do not come from WEEE.

In the next step, impurities such as stones, heavy metal parts and wood are removed. Various technical procedures are then performed. These include wet and dry treatment steps, in which the cables are first granulated, and the resulting fractions are then separated by particle size and density. The technologies used largely correspond to the processes also employed in the processing of WEEE and metal fractions. The processes selected depend on factors such as which cable types are the primary focus.

Depending on the technology used, copper purity of up to 99.9 per cent can be achieved when working with higher-value cable types, such as power cables. This creates economic benefits for the recycling companies, as copper in this form can be immediately sold without further processing. WEEE cables typically have lower copper content per unit because they include more plastics and additional metals (due to the presence of plugs, for example). In practice, WEEE cables can be processed together with other cable types in order to achieve a higher copper quality through mixing.  The copper fractions from WEEE cables are mostly forwarded to smelters.

Previous assumptions for calculating the recycling rate

The mass fraction of cables in WEEE varies depending on the appliance category. According to batch tests, the share for SENS large household appliances (LHA) is usually well below the 1 per cent threshold, while for SENS and Swico small appliances, it is generally in the single-digit percentage range. Given these low proportions, a standardised formula (“recycling package”) for the calculation of the recycling rate (RR) of WEEE has often been used in past audits to estimate how cables are recovered. For cable recycling, it was estimated that 31 per cent of copper is materially recycled and 69 per cent of plastic is recovered for energy.

New findings and recommendations

With certain input compositions, such as small household appliances with many older vacuum cleaners, the cable proportion can also be increased and thus have a relevant impact on the recycling rate. Therefore, new recycling packages that better align with current recycling practices are to be rolled out in the course of 2026. The TK SENS/Swico takes into account the following findings:

• The assumption of 31 per cent copper in WEEE cables is still valid.
• The different degrees of purity of copper can initially be neglected as part of the calculation of the recycling rate of WEEE cables, meaning that copper in WEEE is assumed to be 100 per cent pure.
• Iron is usually separated, resulting in a share of approximately 3 to 5 per cent. Material recovery of iron will therefore be taken into account in the future.
• WEEE cables may also contain aluminium, currently in negligible amounts. Therefore, no aluminium is included in the recycling rate.
• The plastic content is usually slightly below 60 per cent. Most cable plastic consists of PVC. Plastics such as PP or PE (e.g. in power cables) account for a smaller share. Recycling of PVC may be credited in certain cases in the future (see below).
• In the recycling process, in addition to plastic, a finer non-metallic fraction is also generated, which can be described as dust and is recovered for energy.

For the calculation of the recycling rate, this means that materially recovered iron will also be credited in the future. In purely quantitative terms, however, the key question for cables is whether plastic is recycled. The answer to that mainly depends on two aspects: are there buyers for the plastic, and are there contaminants in the plastic?