Plastics recycling specialist PLASgran (Wimblington / UK; www.plasgranltd.co.uk) has announced its sales were up 30% at GBP 22m (approximately EUR 25m) in fiscal 2017. The company has also added a new washing and separation facility in Newcastle / UK, as well as a new twin-screw extrusion line to add a further 10,000 t/y of compounding capacity at its plastics recycling facility in Wimblington.

According to PLASgran, the new washing facility has a capacity of over 30,000 t/y and is focused on HDPE bottles as well as PP pots, tubs and trays. It has been running since summer 2017, and will soon be expanded to include specialist films cleaning. The investment is a joint venture with Monarch.

The company says despite the 2016 commissioning of its "Intarema" line, from Austrian recycling systems provider Erema (Ansfelden; www.erema.at), it was at the limit of its compounding capacity. As a result, the company has announced a deal to purchase Maschinen- und Anlagenbau Schulz's (MAS, Pucking / Austria; mas-austria.com) "MAS 93K", with continuous disc filtration (a twin-screw extruder with laser filter technology for recyclate compounding). This will allow PLASgran's compounded product range to include automotive standard filled PP grades and HDPE extrusion and blow-moulding materials.

PLASgran opened a technical development centre in 2016, located next to its compounding facilities. The centre houses testing and analytical equipment, as well as a Dr. Boy (Neustadt-Fernthal / Germany; www.dr-boy.de) "BOY 35" injection moulding machine.

The UK recycler offers injection, extrusion and blow-moulding grade recyclates, including PP, PE, HIPS, GPPS, ABS, PC, PVC, PMMA, PA and PET. It also collects end-of-life municipal waste bins and containers for reprocessing as regrind or for further compounding.