DEScycle, a London-based startup spun out of research at the University of Leicester, has opened its first demonstration plant at the Wilton Centre in Teesside, northeast England.
The facility, run with the startup's joint venture partner GAP Group, one of the UK's largest e-waste recyclers, can process 50-100 tonnes of material a year in 250kg batches.
Its first products will be gold, copper, silver and palladium, recovered from printed circuit boards and other electronic scrap, with tin, iron and aluminium recovery in development.
DEScycle's technology replaces the smelters and strong acids that dominate metals recycling with deep eutectic solvents, a class of non-toxic liquid salts that dissolve target metals at low temperatures. The company says this cuts both the cost and the emissions of recovering metals, and lets valuable material be processed close to where the waste is generated rather than exported overseas.
There is no shortage of feedstock. Electronic waste is the world's fastest-growing waste stream, with some 62 million tonnes produced in 2022 and less than a quarter of it properly recycled, according to the UN's Global E-waste Monitor.
DEScycle wants to turn that pile into a domestic source of the critical minerals needed for AI, electrification and advanced manufacturing, it said.
"This facility is the first operational blueprint for DEScycle's distributed metals processing model," said Leo Howden, DEScycle's chief executive, in a press statement. "We believe the UK has an opportunity to lead in a new model of metals processing."
The startup has already lined up commercial partners. Cisco will supply materials to the facility, while Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corporation will conduct an offtake study to evaluate routes to market for the recovered metals.
The opening also lands amid a wider UK push on critical minerals. The government's Critical Minerals Strategy targets recycling to meet 20% of annual UK demand by 2035, and last month industry minister Chris McDonald announced a £50m investment in domestic critical minerals production during a visit to the site.
DEScycle closed a £10.2m Series A in late 2024, led by UK growth investor BGF with Berlin-based Vorwerk Ventures as co-lead, alongside Cisco Investments, Kadmos Capital and Nesta. Mitsubishi has also invested in the company, per Dealroom data.
The startup is now raising again. Archipelago Ventures has invested in the ongoing equity round, partner Justin Guest told Impact Loop in a previous interview. The size of the round has not been disclosed.