The investment marks a bid by the company to provide recycling services to producers of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) to meet forthcoming regulations.
 The Axion plant at Salford, Manchester, is to be converted from its virgin plastics roots to process recycled plastics from waste electrical equipment |
Announced today, the acquisition gives Norton the keys to a 40,000 square foot facility at Salford, Manchester, which is to be turned into a specialist plant for recycling plastics from waste electronics.
Previously used for producing virgin plastics, Norton said the Salford plant would be given the capability of separating, compounding and extruding about 14,000 tonnes of recycled plastics every year taken from waste electronics. It could also process plastics from other sources like end-of-life vehicles in future.
Upgraded
Axion Recycling, which has its head office in Bramhall, Manchester, currently employs 26 staff. Norton said when the upgraded Salford plant begins production by February 2007, the number of staff will increase to 34. The operation will trade as Axion Polymers.
Six further jobs are expected to be created by July 2007 as the UK gears up for the start of producer responsibility for WEEE (see letsrecycle.com story).
The new Salford operation will produce recycled plastic including polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene “prepared to the exacting standards required by customers both in the UK and overseas”. The plastics will be sold under the “Axpoly” brand name.
Axion commercial director Roger Morton said: “We aim to be Europe's best recycler of post-consumer waste plastics from WEEE, and Norton's investment has given us the capability to deliver quality recycled materials on a production scale which would not have been possible without the new facilities in Salford.”
Axion's consultancy service will continue to operate as a separation, Norton said.
Full service
S Norton and Co is one of the larger metal recycling companies in the UK, with 100 staff operating four sites in Liverpool and one in Manchester. The firm has two large metal shredders and three deep water export terminals processing about one million tonnes of scrap metal every year.
The company said its new investment will allow it to offer a full service to obligated WEEE producers and compliance schemes for the recycling of all materials in waste electrical appliances.
A spokesman for Norton said: “This exciting new venture will give us the ability to satisfy a significant customer need by turning waste into recycled products and delivering the recovery levels that are demanded by the legislation.”
New legislation under Europe's WEEE Directive, coming into force from July 2007, will require electronics producers or their compliance schemes to provide evidence of both the dismantling of WEEE and the reprocessing of the separated materials.
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