Turning plastic waste into food-grade containers
Reusable and recyclable packaging is shooting up the political and public agenda, and increasingly offering a more acceptable choice for a growing number of environmentally conscious consumers.
A UK company has made a sound and growing international business from this objective - it was first in the world to produce food-grade plastic from waste materials by developing a process that was unique at the time, less costly and that is now being followed by others in the industry.
It was said to be “typical British ingenuity and application” that enabled a modest factory that employs 70 people in Teesside, north-east England, to lead the world in producing food-grade recycled plastic.
The company, Greenstar WES, received a 2009 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category for its work in processing waste plastics. It designed and invested in new equipment, made innovations in separation processing, introduced novel modes of waste cleaning, and found new markets for recycled products.
As well as being first to recycle crisp packets, it led the world by pioneering the production of hygienic food-grade recycled plastics. These are used to manufacture millions of plastic milk bottles and food trays found today on supermarket shelves, as well as cosmetics packaging.
Through technological enhancements, Greenstar WES has enlarged the range of plastics that are being recycled (such as plasticised film and very low-grade plastics), extended the areas of application for recycled plastic, and reduced the costs of handling consumer and commercial plastic waste streams.
Its founder and managing director James Donaldson said: “The Queen’s Award is a tribute to typical British ingenuity and application, and I and all my staff feel very privileged to have our hard work rewarded in this manner. Thanks too should go to our suppliers, partners and customers who share our vision for turning waste plastic into a valuable reusable resource.”
Majority-owned by fast-growing recycling business Greenstar UK, Greenstar WES receives up to 2,000 tonnes of baled plastics each month, much of it from domestic collections processed at Greenstar’s materials recycling facilities such as its state-of-the-art site near Birmingham, central England.
Greenstar is one of the UK’s leading recycling-led waste management companies, offering national coverage. With forecast annual revenue of 121 million pounds, it manages more than 270,000 tonnes of material a year, operates from nearly 40 facilities throughout the UK, has about 1,450 employees and runs a fleet of more than 500 trucks.
Greenstar WES’s output is supplied also to manufacturers in Belgium, Italy, France and the Netherlands. Its annual processing capacity of about 25,000 tonnes of plastics will save an estimated 37,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, as well as helping reduce the use of fossil fuels and virgin materials.
The company’s innovation trail began in 2001 when it was first in the UK to implement a uniquely adapted recycling extruder. This enabled it to become the only UK processor capable of recycling metalised crisp packets, turning them into multi-coloured plastic pellets for making paint trays, plants pots and so on.
In 2005, Greenstar WES began working with other companies using heavy print film for chocolate and sweet wrappers, and multi-layer films for rice and other foods. Later that year, Greenstar WES installed a specially adapted third-generation recycling extruder that was then the largest, most expensive and complex machine of its kind in the UK.
The company also processes about 4,000 tonnes annually of other waste plastics sourced from car scrap, specialist pipes and films. This ability to process 12,000 tonnes annually of “awkward” plastics makes Greenstar WES the UK market leader.
Looking ahead, Greenstar WES plans to develop its technology further for full commercial processing of about 30,000 tonnes annually of mixed domestic plastics and car-shredder plastic scrap. This will put the company in the top three specialist plastics processors in the UK.
Greenstar WES
http://www.thewesgroup.co.uk/