The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) announced funding for a new 300,000 tonnes newsprint recycling capacity in July and invited companies interested in building new newsprint capacity to express their interest by August 10.
The next stage of the tender process is expected to take WRAP four weeks as companies have to submit their prequalification documents by the end of September when a further short-list is likely to be drawn up by a panel of experts.
Aylesford Newsprint is seen as a favourite to win support for its plans to build a new paper machine to take in used newsprint. Currently Aylesford Newsprint recycles 450,000 tonnes of used newspapers and magazines, producing 370,000 tonnes of newsprint.
The funding for the new capacity will be limited to no more than 50% of the total value of the project. To receive funding the reprocessing facility must be in the UK and the plant, or plants, must use an “agreed tonnage of waste paper per annum recovered from the municipal waste stream as raw material input for the duration of the life of the facility”.
WRAP says that the agreed tonnage must also be more than the aggregate amount used by the successful bidder in a previous year in its newsprint manufacturing facilities in the UK. The new capacity should come on stream by 2003.
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