The Rugby-based company runs three household waste recycling centres under a contract with Warwickshire county council. The company is now looking at ways to reduce the high transport costs associated with collecting plastics bottles.
With the help of a 54,418 research and development grant from Biffaward through the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme, Clews Recycling has worked with Warwickshire Environmental Trust to purchase the new compactor.
The compactor will reduce the volume of bottles and therefore allow more to be carried on the same load. The company plans to use the compactor as part of a two-year research project investigating making plastics recycling less expensive and more viable for local authorities.
Richard Clews, director of Clews Recycling, said: “Plastics bottle collection and recycling is often done at a loss such that few companies or local authorities are prepared to fund more that a token collection system.”
He added: “The Biffaward grant will enable development of a system that should make it financially viable for more companies and local authorities to promote plastic bottle recycling on a national basis.”
The mobile screw compactor was supplied by Derby-based ET2 recycling and has been fixed to a roll-on-off flat bed truck with a generator at the other end so the compactor can be transported to wherever it is needed.
Project
Plastic bottles collected by Clews Recycling and compacted by the new equipment will be exported to the Far East or taken to local plastics recycler Delleve to be recycled into drainage pipes.
Martin Bettington, chairman of Biffaward, said: “This is a highly practical project that will increase the efficiency of recycling plastic. The project has not only thought about effective technique of collecting waste plastic but has also identified areas where waste plastic can be used to create new products.”
Mr Clews said that although the project is scheduled to last two years the company is looking to get some initial results within six months. He added that the project will also investigate stable markets for plastic bottles, another problem faced by local authorities.
Under its contracts for the three CA sites with Warwickshire county council, Clews Recycling has a target to recycle 40% of the incoming material. Mr Clews said: “We have probably the worst CA site in the county because of its layout and we are achieving only 36% there. But we also run two others at 46 and 47% recycling.”
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