By Chris Smith

UK-based plastics recycling group AWS EcoPlastics is planning a £25m (€29m) investment that could double capacity at its Helmswell bottle recycling facility in the east of England within 18 months.

 

The planned capacity expansion, which still requires approval from the group’s financial backers, will take the capacity of the unit from 80,000 tonnes to more than 160,000 tonnes a year, according to AWS EcoPlastics ceo Jonathan Short. He said a large part of the investment will be directed at expanding its food grade rPET pellet capacity.

 

Short disclosed the plans as he announced that the company has successfully completed “challenge testing” of its recently commissioned 15,000 tonnes capacity hot wash line at Helmswell. This produces rPET pellets from post consumer kerbside bottle collection feedstocks.

 

The testing, which was carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, demonstrates that the process is capable of effectively removing any potential contaminants from the feedstock, he said.

 

“We have experienced a lot of scepticism from the UK customer base over the quality of UK processed post-consumer waste,” said Short. “I would hope these results, along with successful trials with those customers, will restore faith in the concept of recycling post-consumer waste to a food grade standard.”

 

The challenge test results satisfy existing UK national requirements for recycled direct food contact materials. Short said the company will submit its process for approval by EFSA within the next two months as part of the run-up to the introduction of a new harmonised EU regulation covering recycled plastics for food contact applications.

 

AWS installed its rPET hot wash and pelletising line earlier this year as part of a £14m (€16.4m) capital investment programme. Previously it had only run a dry washing system.

 

Short claims the installation makes it the first company in the UK to be able to offer customers an rPET resin in a pellet form with direct food contact clearance.

 

The company has previously announced a 13,000 tonnes a year supply contract for r-PET pellet with Artenius Pet Packaging Europe, a subsidiary of La Seda De Barcelona, for production of bottles for carbonated beverages. Short says the remaining rPET pellet capacity is likely to go into the thermoforming sector.