Marlin wanted to recycle fibre optic cable remnants on an industrial scale. Fibre optic cable that is damaged or part lengths too short for use has historically been scrapped with disposal to landfill.

Marlin has a target to be Zero carbon by 2030 and have four strands in their strategy to meet this objective.

1. Reducing the use of raw materials by recycling material that would otherwise go to landfill
2. Extending the useful life of the existing product through repatriation and refurbishment
3. Use of 100% carbon neutral electricity
4. Significantly reducing vehicle emissions through the use of alternative fuels, such as HVO

One of the ways they wanted to achieve their first goal was to develop a milling solution that meant that waste cable got a new lease of life by recycling it into reusable reels for the distribution of cable. Reducing the need for plastic and plywood reels reduces the use of additional raw materials and the cost of disposing of it to landfill.

Marlin spent five years developing the new
process from a lab-based project to launch
in March 2022, they expect to recycle and
redistribute thousands of tonnes of redundant cable per year.

Before choosing the Atritor milling solution they explored solutions across Europe with all the major players in Spain, Italy, and Germany. The key advantage of the Atritor Cell Mill was the ability to process a complex material whilst giving a high throughput with minimum wear and controllable particle size. They found that the competing disc-based systems were not able to provide the same minimal maintenance option with a controllable particle size.