IAWS Co-op is investing in TechRec Ireland, a new company set up to recycle electrical and electronic equipment.

The investment, which combined with the other partners' input will total €5 million, comes as Government seeks to enforce EU regulations on disposal of harmful waste, including electrical and electronic waste, known as WEEE.

TechRec will acquire the plant equipment from Immark, one of Europe's leading WEEE recyclers, which has been providing this service in its home country of Switzerland for the last 15 years. The new plant, which will be based somewhere in the greater Dublin area will be capable of recycling up to 24,000 tons of WEEE annually into reusable materials for reuse in manufacturing. It will be fully operational early next year.

TechRec will be Ireland's first automated WEEE processing plant. Currently, almost three quarters of Irish municipal waste, including electrical and electronic equipment that contain harmful substances, ends up in landfill sites.

IAWS Co-op will have a controlling stake in the new venture, whose other stakeholders are Immark and a management team, including the project's managing director Gerry Killen. The IAWS Co-op, which has annual turnover of more than €70 million, last month announced plans to change its name to One51 as part of its transformation to a public company.

IAWS chief executive Philip Lynch welcomed the investment: "For too long Ireland has been relying on our neighbours to handle our waste problems.

"And the total investment of €5 million in the new facility will ensure that an opportunity now exists for Irish business and Irish consumers to deal with this, ever growing, waste stream here in Ireland."