U.K. startup WEEE Systems has revealed ambitious plans to revolutionize the U.K.'s e-waste management industry, revealing it is in early-stage talks to develop a prototype plant capable of providing reuse and closed-loop recycling services to leading electronics manufacturers.

Speaking to BusinessGreen, chief executive Bob Clarke said the company planned to partner with at least one manufacturer and directly involve them in the development of the plant.

"We'd like to see one of the manufacturers be visibly involved," he said. "The e-waste industry is bizarre in that firms currently pay you less than the old kit is worth to take it away and recycle it, but then if anything goes wrong and it does end up in an illegal scrap yard in the developing world you are the one that gets in trouble. We want to work with a manufacturer where they agree to give us 50,000 old TVs; for example, we'll reuse or recycle them as appropriate and provide our partner with the resulting reusable parts and materials."

Clarke said such a partnership, with the manufacturer potentially taking a stake in the new facility, would allow electronics firms to take ownership of the full "value chain" presented by e-waste.

Clarke's comments follow the launch of a new software package and service from the company designed to make it easier for corporate clients to maximize the value from their old electronic equipment.

Dubbed Cosvcon -- an amalgam of cost versus contribution -- the new software and service package audits a corporation's IT infrastructure, recording information on a wide range of metrics, including the equipment's age, energy use, utilisation and carbon footprint.

The company then provides clients with regular updates on the status of their infrastructure and identifies the optimum time to retire old servers, PCs, phones and other equipment.

"The aim is to help the client realize the maximum transformative value of their IT, where we can say, ‘At this point the asset is perfect for the secondary market, but if you leave it for a year it will be good for the recycling market'," Clarke explained. "The value of IT assets does not fall in a linear fashion, so you can realize a lot more value by identifying the right point."

This article originally appeared on BusinessGreen.

_{E-waste photo via Shutterstock.}