Greenstar wins Wrap funds to boost yoghurt-pot recycling

The waste management company has won the funds from the Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap) after a competition which kicked off in June last year.

The new facility, in Redcar, Middlesborough, will be able to reprocess 20,000 tonnes/year of mixed colour polypropylene, PE, PET as well as PVC and PS from local households by the time it is completed in 2013.

Wrap’s grant will fund around 30% of the project, while Greenstar WES will pay for the rest.

Recycling of what Wrap terms mixed plastics is one of the weakest areas of the UK recycling infrastructure and. Mixed plastics are also one of the key targets of anti-packaging campaigns for this reason.

Wrap director for market development Marcus Gover said: “Mixed plastic packaging is an extremely visible waste stream, and householders increasingly want it to be recycled in the same way as other packaging materials such as glass, paper, plastic bottles and cans, which are widely recycled.”

“It has a value as a recycled material and it does not make economic or environmental sense to dispose of it in landfill. We’re looking forward to the extra domestic capacity WES Greenstar will add with this new facility.”

James Donaldson, Greenstar WES founder and managing director, said the new facility would create 20 jobs and that its output would be sold primarily to customers with “higher-value industrial applications”.

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