AWS Eco Plastics (Newcastle-upon-Tyne / UK; www.awsecoplastics.com) has opened its new plastic bottle recycling facility in Hemswell, Lincolnshire / UK more than a year after the plant was damaged by a fire. Capable of processing more than 100,000 t of waste plastic or 2 bn bottles a year, the new facility is the largest and most sophisticated in Europe, AWS Eco Plastics said. The company intends to expand the processing capacity to 140,000 t/y by mid-2011. “With the UK projected to recycle 300,000 t of plastic bottles per annum by the end of the year, this will mean that the Hemswell facility would single-handedly be responsible for almost 50% of the national total in 2010,” AWS Eco Plastics stated.

Chairman Peter Gangsted said the fire, which destroyed the plant’s entire sorting and storage area 14 months ago (see Plasteurope.com of 31.08.2009), “was a major blow, but it allowed us to redevelop and introduce the next-generation machinery that we have today.”

The new GBP 17m (EUR 20m) facility contains equipment developed by Stadler, Titech and Herbold. With 17 polymer and optical sorters, the plant has a flexible output of 11 different streams of plastic, ensuring that it is virtually zero-waste, AWS Eco Plastics said. Food-grade PET will be a key market, it noted. Jonathan Short, managing director of AWS Eco Plastics, pointed to the rising demand for low-carbon packaging. “There is huge potential in the UK market and this can only grow as the demand for low-carbon food and drink packaging increases,” he remarked.

Products made with recycled plastic from the AWS Eco Plastic site are 68% less carbon-intensive than packaging made with virgin materials, the company said.