JFC Delleve plastic bottle sorting to come online next month

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) yesterday formally announced its 1 million grant in the new plant in St Helen's, the equivalent of about a third of the total project costs. The plant will be able to sort and wash 20,000 tonnes of plastic bottles when it reaches full capacity within the next two years.

It is thought that discussions on the grant have been taking place for some time but the confirmation has been delayed as Delleve was acquired by Irish-based JFC Manufacturing (see letsrecycle.com story).

John Concannon, managing director of JFC Delleve, said: “This new reprocessing facility will allow JFC Delleve to significantly expand our plastic bottle recycling operations. The WRAP grant is a crucial element of this project, which will contribute to a substantial increase in the UK’s plastic bottle recycling capacity.”

The plant will include an infrared sorting system, due to come on line in May 2004, which will sort plastic bottles into polymer type and colour.

From July 2005, JFC Delleve also expects to operate new extrusion capacity and the UK's first hot wash system for plastic bottles to reduce contamination and improve the quality of the recyclate.

Dr Paul Davidson, WRAP's material sector manager for plastics, said: “One of the key strengths of the project is that the new plant provides an integrated recycling solution and successfully embodies the key principles of scale, automation and integration.”

Of the 450,000 tonnes of plastic bottles used in the UK each year only around 5% are currently collected for recycling. It is thought that of the 20,000 tonnes to be processed each year by JFC Delleve, most will come from new local authority collections.

WRAP chief executive Jennie Price said: “Automated sorting will reduce processing costs, and so will make it easier for manufacturers to switch from virgin to recycled plastic. We also hope that it will encourage more local authorities to collect plastics for recycling, a move which would be popular with many Council Tax payers.”