Biggest plastic recycling facility to process half of UK’s plastic bottles
Greenwise Staff
24th November 2010
Europe’s biggest plastic sorting and recycling facility, which has just opened in North Lincolnshire, aims to process half of the UK’s plastic bottles by the middle of next year and address the growing demand from industry for low carbon packaging.
AWS Eco Plastics, which was devastated by a fire 14 months ago, officially reopened yesterday as a new £17 million state-of-the-art facility capable of processing more than two million
plastic bottles a year. The Hemswell factory – the largest of its kind in Europe – aims to process almost 50 per cent of the UK’s entire plastic bottles going to
waste by next year, when it increases processing capacity at the site to 140,000 tonnes. The UK is projected to recycle 300,000 tonnes of plastic bottles per annum by the end of the year.
Demand for recycled plastic
One of the key attractions of the facility is its ability to recycle plastics through the facility that are 68 per cent less carbon-intensive than packaging made from virgin materials. Demand for food-grade recycled plastics has increased in recent years as retailers and brand owners have sought to increase the recycled content in their products.
According to a report by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) this year, UK demand for food-grade recycled plastics continues to outstrip demand, with prices typically ranging up to £40 a tonne.
State-of-the-art equipment
State-of-the-art equipment means AWS Eco Plastics has a flexible output of 11 different streams of plastic, ensuring that it is virtually zero-waste and able to address the growing demand from the
food and beverage industry for food-grade recycled plastics. TITECH sensor-based sorting systems means bottles can be sorted by polymer type and by colour, thereby achieving levels of purity and quality for food-grade recycled plastics.
"There is huge potential in the UK market and this can only grow as the demand for low carbon food and drink packaging increases. This is a growth industry in which the UK has the potential to be a world leader, a prime example of the Government’s low carbon economy," said Jonathan Short, managing director of AWS Eco Plastics.
The new facility employs over 130 people with 110 of those employed on the processing site itself.
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