Knowaste hopes chunk of 250m goes to nappies

The operator of the UKs only nappy recycling facility, Knowaste, is hoping that a good chunk of Communities Secretary Eric Pickles 250 million weekly collection fund will go towards collecting nappies.

The comments came as the Canadian company announced plans to increase capacity at its West Bromwich recycling facility from 36,000 to 42,000 tonnes-a-year.

Knowastes chief executive Roy Brown told letsrecycle.com that weekly collections of nappies and other incontinence items and feminine hygiene products (AHP) would help to make fortnightly residual waste collections more acceptable to the public.

Mr Brown said: We hope that a good chunk of money from the 250 million fund will go towards recycling of this waste stream. These products are one of the material streams that are holding back councils going to bi-weekly collections but the provision of this additional money will allow them to do this.

According to a survey of 100 English waste collection authorities carried out last month, 10-15% of councils interested in bidding for funding want to introduce kerbside nappy collections (see letsrecycle.com story).

At the West Bromwich facility nappies and AHP waste is recycled using an autoclave process which sterilises the material before the different elements can be separated. According to Knowaste, recovered plastic and fibre is then used to manufacture products such as plastic components for product manufacturing, recycling bins, roofing tiles, cardboard industrial tubing and fillers in the construction and road building sector.

Councils

In March 2012 Knowaste announced its first local authority contracts for the treatment of waste with Cardiff and Monmouthshire councils (see letsrecycle.com story) and Chester West and Cheshire councils (see letsrecycle.com story) . Prior to these contracts Knowaste only accepted commercial waste at its West Bromwich facility.

The company says it is currently in talks with a number of other UK councils regarding the treatment of AHP waste.

A spokeswoman told letsrecycle.com: We are in discussions with a number of authorities across the UK concerning the treatment of their domestic AHP waste and our plant expansion plans. Talks are with local authorities and waste partnerships across the UK in Wales, the South East, the South West, the North, Scotland and in the vicinity of our first plant here in the Midlands really it spans a broad geographical base and shows that momentum is building to divert this waste stream from landfill and improve recycling rates.

Expansion

Following its opening in September 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story) the West Bromwich facility is now undergoing an expansion which will allow it to process an extra 6,000 tonnes a year of AHP and nappy waste.

Mr Brown explained: A lot has been going on since our formal opening in September. We have been continuing to improve the productivity of the plant and are about five months into the commissioning process. We are going to close the plant for a few days which will see us add additional equipment and update and expand the autoclave. We are also adding a screw press process in the plastic line to improve the moisture content of our polymer.

The existing autoclave uses 18 inch openings through which the material is loaded. The inlet valves are going to be extended to 42 inches meaning material can be loaded more efficiently.

Overall investment in the plant has totalled 6 million and has created 20 jobs.