GAP Group North East expands with new Yorkshire facility to boost electrical recycling services across the UK

GAP Group North East is expanding its nationwide electrical recycling and resource recovery network with the opening of a new operational facility in Yorkshire, strengthening its ability to deliver faster, more efficient services to businesses, local authorities and compliance partners across much of the UK.

The fully accredited electrical recycling specialist already operates established processing centres in Gateshead and Perthshire, providing extensive coverage across North East England and Scotland. The addition of a Yorkshire hub represents the next stage of the company's growth strategy, creating a central location that will significantly improve services for customers throughout Yorkshire, the Midlands and the South of England and Wales.

By reducing collection distances and improving logistics, the new facility is expected to deliver quicker response times, greater operational flexibility and enhanced processing capacity for organisations handling Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).

Nigel Tomlinson, Commercial Director at GAP Group North East, said the expansion reflects the company's commitment to supporting customers wherever they are based.

He told That's Business: "As demand grows, our mission is to make sure every customer, wherever they are in the UK, receives the same level of service, speed and compliance support. The Yorkshire site is about us providing what our customers need."

The new facility is set to offer a number of practical advantages for customers, including more efficient transport routes that reduce travel mileage and improve collection turnaround times. Shorter lead times from collection requests to processing will also help businesses meet tighter project deadlines, while increased capacity will enable GAP Group to respond more effectively to urgent, high-volume or complex recycling requirements.

The expansion comes at a time when regulatory expectations surrounding WEEE compliance continue to increase. Businesses, public sector organisations and compliance schemes are under growing pressure to ensure electrical waste is managed responsibly, creating greater demand for accredited recycling partners with the capacity to handle larger volumes across multiple waste streams.

GAP Group says the Yorkshire site will allow it to maintain the high standards of reliability and responsiveness that customers have come to expect while supporting continued growth in demand.

The enhanced network is expected to benefit a wide range of organisations, from facilities management companies coordinating nationwide collections and retailers undertaking store refurbishments, to construction firms clearing project sites, education trusts replacing IT equipment and brokers managing compliance obligations on behalf of clients.

With three strategically located processing facilities, GAP Group North East is positioning itself to provide faster, more accessible and more resilient electrical recycling services to organisations across the UK.

https://gapgroupuk.com

GAP Group North East launches UK‑wide insulation panel recycling to tackle construction’s hidden waste and pollution problem

A North East–founded recycling business has launched a UK‑wide insulation panel recycling service to tackle one of construction’s most overlooked environmental problems: what happens to insulation at end of life. 

Construction is responsible for around 62% of all waste generated in the UK and roughly a third of everything sent to landfill, despite national targets to drive that figure close to zero.

Insulation is essential for cutting operational carbon in buildings, but once removed from a roof, façade or cold store it is still too often treated as disposable. 

In practice, that means composite and foam‑cored panels going into mixed skips, then into landfill, shredding or low‑grade incineration routes, where they can persist for centuries, releasing microplastics or releasing trapped blowing agents, harmful gasses and other pollutants.​

GAP Group North East’s new service gives contractors and facilities managers a compliant, direct‑to‑processor route for end‑of‑life insulation panels, helping to divert complex materials away from landfill and uncontrolled disposal. 

Panels collected from projects across the UK are processed through GAP Group’s specialist fridge‑recycling lines in Gateshead and Perth, where metal skins and insulation cores are separated and the gasses removed so that recyclable fractions can be recovered and hazardous components handled under strict environmental controls.

The environmental stakes are high. Older insulated panels – especially legacy cold‑room and composite units – can contain foams blown with ozone‑depleting substances or high‑global‑warming‑potential gases, which regulations say must be captured and treated rather than simply released during shredding, burning or uncontrolled disposal. 

At the same time, plastic‑foam cores such as EPS and other petrochemical‑based materials do not biodegrade and can break down into persistent microplastics that spread through soil and water, adding to the wider plastic pollution crisis.

Peter Moody, CEO at GAP Group North East, told That's Business: “Insulation has helped cut energy use in buildings, but if we just dump the panels at end of life, we are swapping one environmental problem for another.” 

Moody added “By putting insulated panels through the same kind of highly regulated lines we use for fridges, we can recover metals, control and capture blowing agents, and stop these materials ending up as uncontrolled pollution or long‑term landfill burden. That means a real reduction in embodied carbon and environmental risk for our customers’ projects.”

By routing waste panels through its established plants, GAP Group North East can:

Separate and recycle metal facings, reducing the need for virgin metal production and cutting associated carbon emissions.

Treat foam cores and blowing agents in line with ozone‑depleting substance and climate regulations, rather than allowing gases to escape during demolition, burning or landfill.

Provide a clear audit trail so contractors can evidence responsible management of one of their more complex waste streams and demonstrate progress against ESG and net‑zero commitments.

The new insulation panel service sits alongside GAP Group’s wider multi‑stream offer – including fridges, small WEEE, vapes, batteries, displays and more – enabling construction and FM customers to consolidate difficult, compliance‑sensitive waste streams with a single national recycler.

 For a sector under pressure to cut waste to landfill from 13% of total arisings towards a 1% target, services that unlock higher‑value recovery from “forgotten” fractions such as insulation panels are becoming a critical part of credible sustainability strategies.

GAP Group North East is a direct‑to‑processor specialist recycler handling a wide range of electrical and specialist waste streams, including fridges, small WEEE, vapes, batteries, lighting, cables and insulation panels. 

Founded in the North East of England but operating UK‑wide, the company runs processing facilities in Gateshead and Perth and provides fast, compliant national collections, detailed reporting and strong ESG support for business customers.

https://gapgroupuk.com