Coca-Cola in new recycling plant project
March 20, 2011 at 1:55 pm
The quantity of plastic bottles that can be recycled in the UK is about to get a massive boost thanks to a new partnership between Coca-Cola (CCE) and ECO Plastics. The two firms have joined forces to announce the building of a new £15 million recycling facility at Hemswell in Lincolnshire which will be dedicated to recycling plastic bottles.
The new facility is part of a 10-year joint venture, and once it is up and running it will more than double the quantity of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) drinks bottles that can be recycled in the UK. Last year, 35,000 tonnes of PET was processed in the UK; once the facility is up and running that figure will rise to over 75,000 tonnes.
Coca-Cola is making a £5 million investment towards the construction of the site after the original site was destroyed by fire in August 2009. ECO Plastics will raise a further £10 million, and the facility is set to go operational in 2012, leading to the creation of 45 jobs in both the construction phase and the operational phase.
Coca-Cola stands to benefit from a regular supply of recycled PET to help it reach its target of 25% recycled plastics in its UK packaging by 2012.
The MD of ECO Plastics, Jonathan Short, said that the company was “delighted to be partnering with a company of the calibre of Coca-Cola Enterprises”. Simon Baldry, the MD of CCE GB, said that the move will help to “address the recycling challenges in this country”.
Work starts on £80 million London recycling plant
March 5, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Work began recently on a new £80 million recycling plant in London which will convert waste into gas that can be used to generate electricity.
London mayor Boris Johnson was present to mark the beginning of work on the advanced gasification plant, and said that local people won’t have to worry about any rubbish that they cannot recycle going to landfill because now “it will be used to power their homes with green energy”.
The plant is being built by Bioessence East London Ltd, a renewable energy firm in Dagenham, and is one of the first such plants to be built in the UK. Once it is fully up and running in 2013 it will be able to deal with 100,000 tonnes of waste every year, converting it into 19 megawatts of energy.
The process will see residual household waste being directed to the plant, where thermal and chemical processes will be used to break it down. This will create synthetic gas which can then be used to generate electricity.
The plant received an £8.9 million loan from LWaRB (the London Waste and Recycling Board). However, this was less than the £12 million originally pledged due to budget cuts.
The chair of LWaRB, James Cleverly, said that the plant “perfectly demonstrates how waste can be used as a resource.”
On top of the power that the plant will produce, it will also lead to the creation of a number of new jobs. 25 permanent jobs will be created when it is operational, and 100 construction jobs will be created during the building stage.
