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WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has announced that
WES Greenstar will add 20,000 tonnes per year of re-processing
capacity for non-bottle household plastic packaging - such
as margarine tubs, yoghurt pots and meat trays - following
the capital grant competition launched in June 2009.
Research launched last summer demonstrated the commercial
and technical viability of recycling and re-processing non-bottle
household plastic packaging, in addition to the environmental
benefits.
Marcus Gover, Director for Market Development at WRAP said
- "We were delighted with the quality of the bids for this
grant. Mixed plastic packaging is an extremely visible waste
stream and householders increasingly want it to be recycled
in the same way as other packaging materials - such as glass,
paper, plastic bottles and cans - which are widely recycled.
"It has a value as a recycled material and it does not make
economic or environmental sense to dispose of it in landfill.
We’re looking forward to the extra domestic capacity WES Greenstar
will add with this new facility."
The contract was finalised earlier last month with WES
Greenstar which aims to deliver 20,000 tonnes of processing
capacity by 2013. The material will be collected from households
by the local authorities in the surrounding region. WRAP hopes
other facilities to recycle more household plastic packaging
in other local authority areas will be encouraged by the new
WES facility.
James Donaldson, founder and managing director of Queen’s
award-winning Greenstar WES, said - “We’re delighted to receive
WRAP funding for our new facility, which will be based at
our Redcar site and which will create a further 20 new jobs.
The grant recognises Greenstar WES’s outstanding track record
in developing the plastic recycling technology and processes
to maximise resource recovery and reuse.
"Our new mixed plastics plant will be able to process natural
and mixed colour polypropylene, PE and PET, in addition to
PVC and PS - all sourced from domestic recycling collections.
Our annual processing of 20,000 tonnes of mixed rigid plastic
packaging will primarily be sold to customers with higher
value industrial applications."
Although more than 216,000 tonnes of plastic bottles are
collected for recycling in the UK, the recycling of non-bottle
household plastic packaging is still limited. By supporting
this new facility, WRAP hopes to demonstrate the business
case for increasing mixed plastics recycling in the UK and
so attract further investment in capacity.
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