EVEN BETTER PLASTICS RECYCLING FOR NORFOLK
28-9-07
Norfolk Environmental Waste Services (NEWS) in partnership with Breckland, Broadland, Great Yarmouth, North Norfolk, Norfolk County and South Norfolk Councils has just installed a new plastic bottle sorting line in its state-of-the-art Waste Recycling and Transfer Centre (WRTC) at Costessey, Norwich, which will further improve recycling in the county.
The new plastic bottle sorting line is enabling NEWS to sort waste plastics into three separate types prior to reprocessing. This means a purer end product for the UK based plastics processors, which makes for better, more efficient recycling into a range of products and a higher price for the material, with savings being passed back to Norfolk’s councils and ultimately back to the council tax payer.
At NEWS’ WRTC, paper, card, aluminium and steel cans and plastic bottles are sorted into separate waste streams. At the end of the plastics sort line, the new sorting operation separates the plastic materials into the three individual streams: PET, Natural HDPE and mixed plastics. PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) plastics comprise drinks bottles, such as fizzy drinks, squash and water bottles. Natural HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) comprises milk bottles. The ‘mixed plastics’ stream is made up of any other types of plastic bottles, such as shampoo, washing up liquid, bleach and coloured drinks bottles. All three streams are sent for processing into a whole range of plastic products, from insulation to garden furniture and even clothing.
Steve Jenkins, Local Authority Contracts Manager for NEWS, said: “The new plastic bottle sorting line allows us to sort Norfolk’s dry recyclable waste even more efficiently. We have worked closely in partnership most of the district councils in Norfolk on the design and delivery of this important addition to NEWS’ and Norfolk’s recycling capabilities.”
NEWS processes recyclable waste collected by each one of Norfolk’s district councils, as well as from commercial companies, at the modern Waste Recycling and Transfer Centre (WRTC) in Costessey, west of Norwich. The plant very efficiently sorts ‘co-mingled’ waste into different waste streams, which are then sent off to specialist companies for processing. Recycling of plastic bottles reduces CO2 emissions and avoids valuable resources being sent to landfill.
