The company – formerly known as Midland Glass before moving into a wider materials range – began offering a plastic bottle collection scheme in 2003.
 The Recresco vacuum in action |
Recresco uses a vacuum system to remove the bottles from specially-designed bring banks, which it helps to improve the viability of collecting light, low-density plastics.
Collection vehicles can each service more than 40 bring banks every day, vacuuming up the bottles before compacting them. Each vehicle is capable of holding a four-tonne load.
Bristol signed a three-year contract with Recresco, becoming the 15th authority in England to take the scheme on board. In March of this year both Walsall and Wolverhampton signed one-year rolling contracts with the company (see letsrecycle.com story).
Since October 2004, 14 banks have been introduced at eight sites in Bristol, and by the end of the year a total of 21 sites will be established. Once all the banks are in place it is expected that between four and six tonnes of plastic bottles will be diverted from landfill each week.
Demand
Councillor Gary Hopkins, executive member for sustainable environment and neighbourhoods, said: “There is a huge demand for plastic recycling in Bristol, but it is not possible for the council to collect plastic bottles from the doorstep because of the sheer quantity involved and the cost of collecting them.
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“The only practical solution is to have local bins, which are serviced by one lorry, but are emptied more frequently. That is why we have chosen to use the Recresco scheme in Bristol,” he added.
The contract was awarded through Bristol's waste management contractor, SITA UK and the collected bottles will be taken to Recresco's plant in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where the bottles are sorted optically before being baled for sale abroad.
The Recresco site has the capacity to process about 50,000 tonnes of glass and plastic, with an additional 20,000 tonnes of spare capacity available if the demand warrants it, the company said.
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