AN electrical firm which installed the majority of kitchen appliances for the Olympic Village at the London Games has sorted and recycled the packaging from them at its Thetford recycling centre.

Hughes Electrical Group, which is based in Lowestoft and is this year celebrating the 10th anniversary of its own recycling initiative, installed washing machines, tumble dryers, fridges, and smaller items such as kettles, irons and fans in the Olympic Village.

Last year, the recycling centre recycled more than 200 tonnes of cardboard, polythene and polystyrene as well as other items such as white goods, metal, wood, paper, batteries and fluorescent tubes.

The firm brought back more than 450 one tonne builders' bags of material from the Olympic to Thetford.

The centre processes material from all members of the group including Hughes Electrical, Bennetts, Trade Electricals Direct (TED) and Apollo 2000.

The introduction of the landfill tax, together with a visit to a manufacturer who was already recycling polystyrene, gave Hughes the impetus to open the pioneering centre. In the early days it only handled cardboard and polystyrene but now covers much more.

'What we do is certainly good for the environment and also financially advantageous,' said Mark Coleby, who has responsibility for the recycling centre.

'We have also just reached our goal of '% landfill avoidance' – another big achievement for us in our 10th year.'