But even when this new Nampak “closed loop” plant opens next year, it will not provide all the recycled HDPE the company needs for its milk bottle production.
Greenstar has now agreed to be one of the companies supplying additional processed plastic flakes to Nampak. It is developing food-grade plastic reprocessing facilities through its Teesside subsidiary Waste Exchange Services (see letsrecycle.com story).
Greenstar WES will produce the HDPE flakes from plastic bottles processed by Greenstar UK's MRF operations, including bottles collected by its recently acquired collection company Verdant Group.
The Greenstar WES plant, located at Redcar, already produces optically-sorted, washed HDPE flake. Over the next few weeks it is installing Vacurema equipment to super-clean the material so it can be used for food grade applications.
Greenstar WES managing director James Donaldson said: “This contract comes just as we start the final installation of the final bits of our plant. We have been washing milk bottles for a while now and we are excited to be working with a key customer like Nampak to deliver a very technically challenging recycling process.”
MRFs
Bottles are sorted at Greenstar's facilities in Darwen, Lancashire, and Skegness, Lincolnshire. It is also building a materials recycling facility at Aldridge in the West Midlands, capable of processing 250,000 tonnes of material.
Greenstar Group chief executive Ian Wakelin said: “This contract and our recent acquisitions means that, as a group, we are now in the position to deliver world class recycling at every stage. We can take plastic waste from the householders bin, collect it and sort it and finally return it to industry.”
The 6,000 tonnes of HDPE flake from Greenstar WES will be in addition to 6,000 tonnes supplied to Nampak Plastics from Australian-owned Closed Loop London, under an agreement reached last summer (see letsrecycle.com story).
Nampak
Nampak Plastics has said it wants to use as much recycled content as possible in the two billion bottles it makes each year. It is anticipating opening a plant in 2009 to process 13,000 tonnes of waste bottles back into food-grade HDPE plastic.
Nampak was one of a number of organisations participating in a Waste and Resources Action Programme trial, which saw 60,000 recycled milk bottles hit the shelves of M&S stores and confirmed the viability of closed loop bottle recycling in the UK.
Bottles made by Nampak, with a 10% recycled content, are set to be available for general sale this summer. By 2009, the company aims to be making milk bottles with a 30% recycled content.
James Crick, Business Development Director of Nampak Plastics, said: “2007 has been a year of firsts for Nampak. We were in the project team that produced the world's first recycled content bottle, we were the first to announce plans to make recycled content bottles widely available across the UK, and plan to be the first closed loop HDPE recycler in the country.”
“With this deal, we are further underlining our commitment to be at the forefront of improving the environmental credentials of a firm consumer favourite.”
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