The Mediterranean has several decommissioned subsea cables and TIM’s international division has decided to do something about it
TIM’s international wholesale provider Sparkle has signed an agreement with Hamburg-based Oceanic Environmental Cables (OEC) for the recovery and recycling of multiple unused subsea telecom cables.
Under the agreement, OEC will acquire from Sparkle more than 22,000km of telegraph – yes, that old – coaxial and fibre optic subsea cables laid in the Mediterranean. It is estimated this will save 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 analyse the various components (optical fibre, copper, steel, aluminium, HDPE, and LDPE) until they are processed into high-quality “regranulates”. OEC will then return the materials to industrial use as secondary raw materials.
The company claims to have developed a unique method of dismantling them with approximately 1% waste, ensuring all materials are upcycled and fed back into industrial use as secondary raw materials.
Turnkey service
The service is fully managed. OEC takes over shore-end leases, permits and bonds, so owners do not have ongoing liabilities with a redundant system, such as shore-end manholes. The service includes desk top studies, permits and marine licences, environmental assessment reports and cable recovery plans. OEC clears spares depots too.
The company has its own vessels and in-house designed recovery equipment. It claims it can recover any submarine cable from any depth in any ocean or sea. The company also performs Pre-Lay Grapnel Runs (PLGR) and other cable maintenance services like end-seal solutions.
OEC’s vessels can transport new cable systems if rip and replace is required. The company said it has successfully recovered more than 25,000km of cable and recently acquired more than 80,000km of out-of-service cables from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and the Mediterranean sea.
Among the first
“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 Sparkle’s CEO Enrico Bagnasco (above, right). “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’’, said OEC CEO Horst Brockmueller (above, left).
Crossing the Med
As of May 2023, the European Union had direct connections to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region via 27 undersea cables. Since then several more have been announced. The two current choke points are the Strait of Gibraltar and Egypt. Over the past decades, the Mediterranean has seen numerous cables installed, retired and replaced due to technological advances and the demands of data traffic.
In unrelated news, copper prices saw impressive gains in 2024, even breaking the $5 per pound mark in May (currently $4.35).