AWS secures major contract to supply recycled PET

The contract -worth £11million a year – will see the North-East company provide recycled plastic pellet for the production of carbonated beverage bottles by Wrexham-based Artenius PET Packing Europe (APPE) – a subsidiary of Spanish-based PET packaging company La Seda De Barcelona.

The deal is the first contract that AWS has signed to support the £14 million of investment undertaken at the company's Hemswell facility in Lincolnshire, which make it “the largest plastic bottle recycling facility in Europe”. (see letsrecycle.com story)

The plant, which became operational last month, has been subject to an extensive investment project in a bid to quadruple the 25,000 tonnes of plastic bottles currently processed each year and introduce the capability and, in its next stage of development, allow the North East company to sort and process plastics to the standards required by the food industry.

Jonathan Short, chief executive of AWS, said: “We are delighted to win this contract which is the culmination of months of negotiation with APPE.

“It is clear APPE has chosen to work with AWS as we have clearly demonstrated the supply of material available to us and the CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) programme undertaken will result in product to a standard required by APPE. Like ourselves, APPE have set their stall out to be a market leader in their field and we look forward to working together to achieve these goals,” he added.

Equally pleased with the deal, George Hendry, APPE UK sales director, said: “We are delighted to have secured this link with AWS Eco Plastics as part of our strategic development in area of PET recycling. As the UK's largest producer of preforms and bottles it is important that we continue to demonstrate our commitment to the recycling and movement and AWS capability provides the ideal solution.”

The two companies are currently negotiating the next stage of the contract in a bid to increase available tonnage of recycled plastic pellet.