Sitting inside one of the vast industrial buildings of KMK Metals Recycling in Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, the Votechnik robot is itself the size of a small house. Its white, angular shape looks like something out of a science-fiction film. At one end, operator Marcin Wieciech feeds a large flat-screen TV onto a conveyor belt. The robot swallows it and, through airtight windows, a robotic arm can be seen holding it while electric saws cut the surface of the screen from its frame. The arm then presents the inside of the device to a heater, which vaporises mercury from its entrails…

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