After the fire at the Slough plant (see letsrecycle.com story), Baylis will re-establish operations there including plastic bottle transfer and sorting facilities.
” I have been in Europe looking at plants that produce food grade PET using around 35% recycled plastic. That is the direction we intend to go in “
– Chris Baylis
But the company also has plans to establish a site in Buckinghamshire in the New Year, which would take sorted PET bottles and turn them into unfinished plastic bottles.
The plant will represent the next step towards a “closed loop” recycling process, turning waste plastic bottles back into new food-grade bottles.
Some 6 million worth of investment is planned to purchase new equipment in 2007, which will be capable of producing “pre-form” bottles, which can then be put in moulds to receive their final shapes for use as packaging.
The new site in Aylesbury would have the capacity to reprocess around 15,000 tonnes of sorted PET plastic each year.
Managing director Chris Baylis told letsrecycle.com on Wednesday that the new site in Buckinghamshire would be larger than the Slough facility and would allow for “a lot of expansion”.
The plans mark an acceleration in interest in food-grade PET plastic recycling in the London area, following the current development of a plant in Dagenham by Australian firm Visy (see letsrecycle.com story).
Europe
Mr Baylis said: “I have been in Europe looking at plants that produce food grade PET using around 35% recycled plastic. That is the direction we intend to go in.”
Mr Baylis believes there is a market now being established for food grade PET to be recycled back into bottles, and would be bringing the necessary technology over to the UK as soon as his company established the supply chain for plastic bottles into the new site.
The new machinery is to produce test-tube shaped embryonic plastic bottles that can then be put into moulds and blown out into a finished bottle. Some 3 million will be spent on the new production equipment, matching the investment in PET and HDPE washing equipment for the Aylesbury site.
New site
Prior to the fire in Slough, Baylis was sending sorted PET to his partners in Europe to be turned into pre-form bottles. But towards the end of the year, the company will be dealing direct with bottle manufacturers.
The company's Slough plant will be used as a waste transfer centre and sorting line for mixed plastic bottles once it is up and running again.
Baylis is also looking into opening more sites in and around London to expand its PET plastic reprocessing operation.
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