PET extrusion lines up and running at fire-hit AWS

Firefighters were called to the blaze on 25 August and finally left the facility on Friday (28 August). A fault on a fan unit feeding a dust compactor was identified as the most probable cause of the fire.

The bottle-sorting plant and a storage facility were destroyed in the fire. But commercial director Duncan Oakes said the hot-washing and extrusion lines had survived the fire, meaning the firm was able to begin extruding food-grade material on Monday.

“We are operational again in extrusion and hot washing and are now seeking supply of PET flakes to convert to food-grade pellets,” he said.

Oakes told Packaging News there would be no material change to the firm’s business plan and said the initial estimate was that rebuilding the sorting facility would take six to eight months.

“We have got to rebuild the plant to start sorting bottles again to meet orders,” he said.

AWS Eco Plastics had recently completed a £14m investment in facilities at the Hemswell site, including the bottle-sorting plant.

It was designed to handle two billion plastic bottles a year, and also segregate a range of plastics collected from local authorities and waste management firms.

The bottles are de-labelled, granulated and washed and can then be used in new plastic products such as pipes and packaging.

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