Collaboration to recover and recycle over 22,000 km of submarine cables

Sparkle (TIM Group), the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, has signed an agreement with Oceanic Environmental Cables (OEC) for the recovery and recycling of multiple unused subsea telecommunications cables. OEC is Europe’s first and only cable recovery and recycling company offering a sustainable and circular economy-based solution for out-of-service subsea cables. Thanks to a unique and patent-pending recycling methodology, OEC dismantles, separates, and sorts all components of unused cables, repurposing or remanufacturing them back into the value chain, thus minimizing waste and maximizing resource utilization. The collaboration with OEC is part of Sparkle's broader commitment to make resources more efficient, reduce emissions, and create a sustainable supply chain, consistent with the TIM Group's principles of sustainability and responsibility.

Under the agreement, OEC will acquire from Sparkle over 22,000 km of telegraph, coaxial and fiber optic subsea cables laid in the Mediterranean, generating an estimated saving of more than 35,000 tons of CO2e through secondary material manufacturing reuse. Sparkle’s Out-of-Service submarine cables will be taken from the seabed and transported to the facilities of OEC and its partners, which will dismantle, separate, clean, and analyze the various components (optical fibre, copper, steel, aluminum, HDPE, and LDPE) until they are processed into high-quality regranulates. OEC will then return the materials with renewed value to industrial use as secondary raw materials.

“We are proud to be among the first global operators to undertake such an innovative initiative, promoting circular economy practices and reducing environmental impact”, said Enrico Bagnasco (on the right in the picture above), CEO of Sparkle. “The collaboration with OEC represents a concrete step toward a more sustainable future, where resources from the past can be recovered and transformed into opportunities for the present and the future."

''We are thrilled to partner with Sparkle on this important initiative. By retrieving and recycling these redundant cables, we are not only reducing the congestion and waste on the Mediterranean seabed but also reducing the need for virgin materials in manufacturing. This process significantly lowers carbon emissions and embodies the principles of a circular economy’’, added Horst Brockmueller (on the left in the picture above), CEO of OEC.