The collaboration combines electronic waste recycling with skills and employment opportunities for prisoners, supporting both resource recovery and positive social outcomes.
Partnership driving circular economy and rehabilitation
The Royal Mint Reformation Metals has partnered with Recycling Lives Services to recover gold and other precious metals from UK electronic waste.
Through the partnership, circuit boards from end-of-life televisions collected at civic amenity sites across the UK are dismantled at Recycling Lives’ Preston facility through supervised workshops. The circuit boards are then transferred to Reformation Metals’ South Wales facility for precious metals recovery.
In addition to supporting domestic precious metals recovery, the initiative creates employment and skills development opportunities for prisoners. For those involved, the workshops offer far more than meaningful work, they provide a pathway to rebuild confidence and develop transferable skills.
Recovering value from electronic waste
Each batch of circuit boards is carefully graded, itemised and verified by Recycling Lives prior to dispatch, ensuring full traceability and the consistent material quality required for precious metals recovery and recycling at The Royal Mint Reformation Metals facility.
Sean Millard, Chief Growth Officer at The Royal Mint, said: “Recycling Lives plays a vital role in supporting our precious metals recovery work.
“We’re proud to work with such a specialised recycling business. Their feedstock has enabled us to continue sourcing high-quality precious metals from e-waste across the UK, while their social impact model adds further value to a partnership advancing a more circular economy.”
Adrian Murphy, Chief Executive Officer at Recycling Lives Services, said: “By working with The Royal Mint’s Reformation Metals team, Recycling Lives Services is recovering valuable materials from UK e-waste while supporting a rehabilitation model that creates practical routes towards employment for prisoners preparing for release.
“The Royal Mint’s commitment to ethical precious metals recovery helps make that model possible, connecting circular economy innovation with meaningful second chances.”
Strengthening the UK’s circular economy
The partnership demonstrates The Royal Mint Reformation Metals’ ambition to provide a sustainable domestic solution for recovering precious metals from electronic waste while supporting a more resilient UK supply chain.
Join the Circular Metals Movement
Discover how your organisation can securely retire electronic assets while recovering more value from printed circuit boards. To learn more about our precious metals recovery solutions, book a call.
About Recylcing Lives
Recycling Lives Services provides nationwide recycling and waste management solutions for businesses across the UK. The organisation combines commercial recycling operations with a social impact model that supports rehabilitation and employment opportunities for people facing barriers to work.
Through its national infrastructure, Recycling Lives Services achieves high levels of landfill diversion while delivering transparent reporting and compliance support for customers across sectors including infrastructure, utilities, manufacturing, construction and retail.
About Reformation Metals
The Royal Mint’s Reformation Metals facility in Llantrisant, south Wales forms part of the 1,100-year-old organisation’s long-term strategy to diversify into sustainable precious metals innovation. By extracting metals such as gold, silver and platinum group elements from electronic waste, The Royal Mint is helping to reduce reliance on traditional mining methods and strengthen domestic supply chains aligned with the UK Critical Minerals Strategy.
