MONOWORLD RECYCLING
Mixed plastics recycling plant opened / First of its kind in the UK / New market opportunities from enhanced grades
 The facility can handle post-consumer pots, tubs, trays and mixed bottles, among others (Photo: Tomra) |
Monoworld Recycling (Bedford / UK; www.monoworldrecycling.co.uk) has built the UK’s first mixed plastics recycling plant using sorting technology from Norway’s Tomra Sorting (Drengsrudhagen; www.tomra.com). The GBP 9m (EUR 10.7m) centre at Rushden, Northamptonshire, officially opened in January 2016 and comprises a post-consumer mixed plastics facility as well as a wash and granulation line. It can recover up to 100,000 t/y of recyclates, with Tomra’s "Autosort" units installed to separate the mixed baled plastics into PET, HDPE, PP, film, paper, steel and aluminium.
The facility can handle post-consumer pots, tubs, trays and mixed bottles with the technology capable of sorting out black plastics, which are then processed further downstream.
The recovered HDPE and PP are used in-house in the hot wash plant, producing high-quality washed flakes, which are supplied to extrusion, injection moulding and pipe applications in the UK and Europe. The other materials, including PE natural and jazz, and PET, are sold to UK and European customers.
Nick Ruparelia, commercial director of Monoworld Recycling, said the investment had opened up new market opportunities in the UK and Europe, thanks to the enhanced grades being produced. He noted that recycling volumes have been increasing as local authorities and businesses strive to reduce waste and meet increasingly challenging landfill and recycling targets.
Programme area manager for Plastics at the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP, Banbury / UK; www.wrap.org.uk), Claire Shrewsbury, added that the development represents exactly the type of initiative that supports the UK’s drive to collect and recycle more non-bottle plastics. She commented: “The focus on effective separation of household plastics and further reprocessing of the polypropylene and polythene fractions will give local authorities and waste management contractors the confidence required to continue to increase collections of non-bottle household plastic packaging in support of UK plastics recycling targets through to 2020 and beyond.”
A total of 120 new jobs have been created at the site. The company also operates a film and metal sorting plant at Sharnbook in Bedfordshire.
The facility can handle post-consumer pots, tubs, trays and mixed bottles with the technology capable of sorting out black plastics, which are then processed further downstream.
The recovered HDPE and PP are used in-house in the hot wash plant, producing high-quality washed flakes, which are supplied to extrusion, injection moulding and pipe applications in the UK and Europe. The other materials, including PE natural and jazz, and PET, are sold to UK and European customers.
Nick Ruparelia, commercial director of Monoworld Recycling, said the investment had opened up new market opportunities in the UK and Europe, thanks to the enhanced grades being produced. He noted that recycling volumes have been increasing as local authorities and businesses strive to reduce waste and meet increasingly challenging landfill and recycling targets.
Programme area manager for Plastics at the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP, Banbury / UK; www.wrap.org.uk), Claire Shrewsbury, added that the development represents exactly the type of initiative that supports the UK’s drive to collect and recycle more non-bottle plastics. She commented: “The focus on effective separation of household plastics and further reprocessing of the polypropylene and polythene fractions will give local authorities and waste management contractors the confidence required to continue to increase collections of non-bottle household plastic packaging in support of UK plastics recycling targets through to 2020 and beyond.”
A total of 120 new jobs have been created at the site. The company also operates a film and metal sorting plant at Sharnbook in Bedfordshire.
14.07.2016 Plasteurope.com [234532-0]
Published on 14.07.2016
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