Welsh plastic recycling plant receives 450,000 grant

Plastics Sorting Limited was awarded £850,000 in funding from the WAG in September 2008 to develop a plant capable of sorting, cleaning and reusing PET and HDPE plastic bottles collected from Welsh households (see letsrecycle.com story).

Now, the community group has been awarded an additional £450,000 in funding to procure hot-wash equipment, to allow it to increase the value of material collected and reprocessed.

Announcing the funding, environment, sustainability & housing minister, Jane Davidson, said: “Having clean, good quality recyclable material such as plastic bottles will be a key part in making our vision for a society that produces as little waste as possible. This new plant will also mean local jobs and investment.

“Our waste plan and green jobs Strategy aim to increase the number of new jobs created in Wales that are ‘green'. This is a great example of the Assembly Government providing specialist support in waste and resource management for Welsh businesses,” she added.

Polymer sorting equipment is already in operation at a site run by Plastics Sorting Limited in Pontypool and this is set to supply the colour-sorting and washing facility at Ebbw Vale with bales of containers of a single polymer type ready for further processing. The Ebbw Vale plant is expected to be fully operational in March 2010.

Under the plans to develop the plant, Plastics Sorting Limited is constructing the facility but operations will be subcontracted to Hertfordshire-based plastics reprocessor Baylis Recycling, with the Ebbw Vale site acting as a ‘sister plant' to Baylis's existing Keynsham facility.

“Delighted”

Project manager, Janet Rawlings, said: “We are delighted with this further support which will allow us to purchase additional specialist equipment to produced a finished material of high quality for manufacturers in Wales and the UK.

“This type of equipment is already in regular use across Europe and we plan to install our plant at a temporary location to allow for operator training and fine tuning before the purpose – built facility at Ebbw Vale is available for occupation,” she added.

The plant is being developed to meet BREEAM Excellent standards – which is the environmental assessment method for buildings – and will incorporate rainwater harvesting for use for most of its process water.

Heat and electricity for the plant are set to be generated from a renewable fuel source, such as an anaerobic digestion facility being developed on the neighbouring Green Business Park.