The 20 million plant represents the culmination of four years of hard work by Welsh company EnviroWales Ltd under managing director David Williams, chief executive Charlie Sherling and environmental director Brian Kelly.The company has said the 80,000 sq ft plant will have the capacity to recycle around 70,000 tonnes of car batteries each year, in line with proposals for a new European Battery Directive.
The facility should also lead to the creation of 130 new jobs in an area of high unemployment.
Mr Williams said: “As a local boy I am delighted to bring a significant number of much needed jobs to the area, with a business that has great benefits to the environment.”
EnviroWales officially launched the building of its new facility at the Rassau Industrial Estate last week at a ceremony attended by Mayor of Blaenau, Councillor Don Wilcox, and local councillor John Hopkins.
Commenting on the development, Cllr Hopkins said: “This is a very welcome step by Envirowales. We welcome any enterprise which brings quality employment to the area and builds on the council’s commitment to sustainable development.”
Technology
Although the building work has now begun on the plant, Envirowise are still procuring the technology for the plant, which is expected to come from Europe.
Once up and running, the plant will break down car batteries into individual components, including metals, plastics and sulphuric acid. These will then be sold to UK reprocessors, and the company has already investigated possible outlets for the materials.
Mr Williams told letsrecycle.com that the technology that it was looking at could recycle around 95% of each battery.
He said EnviroWales would begin collecting batteries from Spring 2006, adding: “We expect the site to be fully operational by the end of 2006.”
The company will be looking to local authorities, the emergency services and ELV processors for its supply of battieries – “basically anywhere where there is a large collection of vehicles,” explained Mr Williams.
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