The company, which said last month that it planned to start buying steel cans again after more than nine months out of the market (see letsrecycle.com story), will use the Corus Approved Steel Packaging Recycling (CASPR) plants in Pontypool and near Workington to quality check, store and bale cans collected by councils, waste management companies and community recyclers.
Instead, Corus has entered into partnerships with just two firms – Pontypool Steel to run the South Wales centre and Derwent Recycling to run the site near Workington – in a move that one industry expert told letsrecycle.com could help to cut the cost of sourcing cans for the company.
Cans passing through these sites will be sent on to be reprocessed at Corus' steel works, including the Port Talbot facility, where Corus yesterday (September 10) revealed it would be restarting its number four blast furnace – 10 months after mothballing it due a massive drop in demand for steel products.
Corus is yet to reveal the price it will pay for cans collected and sent to the CASPR plants, though, with the market price between £10 and £30 a tonne, the company has said it will pay a “fair” amount.
The company's absence from the steel packaging recycling market since last year, after demand for scrap steel fell significantly (see letsrecycle.com story) has put pressure on the price of the steel PRN, as it rose from around £15 in December 2008 to as much as £100 last month due to reduced levels of recycling.
As a result, it is believed to have come under significant pressure from producers to start reprocessing steel packaging scrap to generate PRNs both the market in general and to meet its own packaging recycling obligations as a manufacturer.
Corus is expected to make a formal announcement about the CASPR on Monday (September 14).
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