The first recycling facility designed specifically to recover plastics from shredded end-of-life vehicle (ELV) residue will start commercial production at the beginning of February. MBA Polymers UK (Worksop / UK; www.mbapolymers.co.uk) will finish its commissioning of the plant by the end of January and will then start taking ELV residue from European Metal Recycling (Warrington / UK; www.emrltd.com) in commercial volumes – see Plasteurope.com of 4.10.2010. The plastics recovered will be PP (filled and unfilled), HDPE, ABS and high impact PS. The 60,000 t/y capacity plant will be operating on one shift initially, employing 30 staff. Plans are to build up to full capacity usage by early 2012.

MBA Polymers UK is a joint venture company formed in 2008 by European Metal Recycling and MBA Polymers (Richmond, California / USA; www.mbapolymers.com). It employs a process developed by MBA that is currently used in plants in Austria and China. However, these are primarily handling WEEE scrap rather than ELV residue. The plastics recovered at Worksop are expected to be used for construction products, as well as in packaging for boxes and bins. Re-use in automotive applications is also possible.