Baylis launched its plastic bottle recycling service in February following the installation of a 3 million plastic reprocessing facility at its Slough site (see letsrecycle.com story).
” We are looking to have councils signed up long term, we want them to know that we don’t just want to be a short term solution “
– Chris Baylis, Baylis Recycling
Runnymede council has become the first council to sign up to the scheme. The Surrey borough has signed a five-year, fixed rate contract to deliver all of the plastic bottles collected at its bring banks to Baylis.
Chris Baylis, the company's managing director, said: “Runnymede is adopting a strategy that makes good commercial and environmental sense, and we encourage other councils to follow their example. Under the scheme, from March Runnymede residents will be able to deposit plastic bottles and lids at existing recycling sites for collection.”
Baylis will take the first delivery from Runnymede at the end of March. Mr Baylis said that he is close to signing contracts with several other councils and will continue to look elsewhere to bring in more plastic.
Councillor Chris Norman, chairman of Runnymede's leisure and environmental committee, said: “This decision shows our commitment to reducing waste and increasing recycling in the borough. Our residents have asked us for this, and I urge them to use this service and work with us to reduce the amount of waste we produce.”
Long term
Although Runnymede signed up to a five year deal, Baylis are offering contracts for as long as 10 years with other councils. Mr Baylis said: “We are looking to have councils signed up long-term – we want them to know that we don’t just want to be a short term solution for them.”
Baylis has said that it will be providing balers to many of the councils for them to bale the bottles on site. Mr Baylis explained that by baling the bottles the amount of space they take up in transportation goes down by around eight times, this will allow the council to collect for longer and produce higher yields.
“We will even be offering to set these balers up at civic amenity sites where they can be used for the collection of the bottles as well as the baling,” said Mr Baylis.
Additional site
Mr Baylis has predicted that the company will be able to fill the 15,000-tonne capacity of its site up with a fraction of the councils in the South East. Because of this Baylis will be looking to add an additional site around the south west area of London.
He said: “I would say that within a year we will be signing a contract on a premises for a second site. I have already started investigating the potential. After that we will probably look at Birmingham and then other sites further North. We want to be able to offer local collections nationwide.”
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