The St Helens-based company is to begin the installation of a PET hot wash facility in early November. The company will be aiming to sell the recycled PET plastic to manufacturers of food packaging.
” We are already producing drainage pipes out of HDPE and selling them in the UK, now our PET will remain in the UK as well. “
– Andy Bagnall, JFC Delleve
Delleve intends to have the new machinery, provided by Italian company Sorema at a cost of 2 million, installed and running by the end of January 2007.
The hot wash machinery will replace the company's current cold wash technology, according to operations manager Andy Bagnall this will allow them to recover the full value from the PET.
Proximity
This move will also allow Irish-owned Delleve to sell the recycled plastic within the UK. At the moment, most reprocessed PET produced by Delleve is sent abroad for use.
Mr Bagnall said: “This will put the whole JFC package together. We are already producing drainage pipes out of HDPE and selling them in the UK, now our PET will remain in the UK as well. We will be offering true proximity recycling.”
While the new equipment is being installed, Delleve will also be upgrading its plant at the front end to enable it to handle two and a half tonnes of plastic bottles per hour. Overall the upgrades will see the plant capacity increasing from about 13,000 tonnes to about 20,000 tonnes per annum.
Mr Bagnall added that the plant would eventually be able to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week all year round.
The company is now looking into obtaining contracts to supply an increased amount of PET plastic bottles, as well as contracts for the end product.
Another food-grade PET recycling plant is currently being developed in Dagenham, East London, by Australian-owned company Visy (see letsrecycle.com story).
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