The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP, Banbury / UK; www.wrap.org.uk) has awarded a GBP 1.19m (EUR 1.36m) grant to the Greenstar WES Group (Redcar / UK; www.thewesgroup.co.uk) for the construction of a reprocessing facility for non-bottle household plastic packaging. The 20,000 t/y plant will recycle margarine tubs, yoghurt pots and meat trays, handling waste collected from households by local authorities. Construction of the facility, which will be able to process natural and mixed colour PP, PET and PE, as well as PS and PVC, is set to start next year, with full operational capacity scheduled for 2013. All the recycled materials will be sold for industrial applications.

James Donaldson, founder and managing director of Greenstar WES, said: “We’re delighted to receive WRAP funding for our new facility, which will be based at our Redcar site.” Currently WES has a 12,000 t/y facility that mainly processes PP, PE and PET bottle waste.

The mixed plastic capital grant scheme was launched by WRAP in June 2009 following research, initiated in 2008 (see Plasteurope.com of 25.08.2008), that demonstrated that the collection and reprocessing of mixed plastics is both technically and economically viable. WRAP now hopes other companies will be encouraged to recycle mixed plastic waste, too.