Sparkle, the subsea cable unit of Telecom Italia (TIM), has signed an agreement with Oceanic Environmental Cables (OEC) for the recovery and recycling of multiple unused subsea telecommunications cables.

In total, OEC will acquire more than 22,000 km of telegraph, coaxial, and fiber optic subsea cables laid in the Mediterranean from Sparkle.

No financial terms were disclosed.

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– Sparkle

OEC specializes in recovering and recycling unused subsea cables.

The company dismantles, separates, and sorts all components of unused cables, repurposing or remanufacturing them back into the value chain.

Sparkle stated that the agreement could generate an estimated saving of more than 35,000 tons of CO2e through secondary material manufacturing reuse.

Providing an explanation for the recycling process, Sparkle stated its out-of-service submarine cables will be removed from the seabed and transported to the facilities of OEC and its partners. From there, the cables will be dismantled, separated, and cleaned, while the various components are then analyzed (optical fiber, 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, (pictured) 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."

Sparkle operates more than 600,000km of cables that connect countries across Europe, and the Americas. Italy is seeking to bring this network under state ownership as part of a plan from Giorgia Meloni’s government to take control of more strategic assets.

The company is currently considering a binding offer of €700 million ($724m) for its Sparkle unit from Italy's Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and Retelit, a company controlled by the Asterion fund.

Earlier this month, TXO, a company that helps telcos recycle metal, stated in a report that carriers could earn tens of billions of dollars over the next 15 years from selling copper recycled from older network cables.

This year alone, global telecoms groups will receive up to $720 million in 2025 alone from copper sales, according to TXO.