United Glass invests in facilities
investment in what will be the first phase of a major upgrade of
its glass recycling and processing plant at Alloa, Scotland.
United Glass has announced a £1.2 million (€1.9m) investment in what is planned to be the first phase of a major upgrade of its glass recycling and processing plant at Alloa, Scotland.
The company first opened the facility back in 1980 as part of its Scottish glass recycling programme and, with the help of local authorities and Scottish contractors, has since received, cleaned and recycled over 50,000 tonnes of glass packaging waste each year.
"Since we acquired sole ownership of the British Glass Recycling Company (BGRC) early this year, we have turned our attention to moving glass recycling forward in Scotland," said John Cobring, United Glass spokesman on recycling. "The BGRC will continue to act as a separate company, but with a clear brief to expand the tonnage of material available to United Glass."
Cobring also said the plant would play a major part in meeting the increased recycling and recovery targets set for packaging manufacturers by proposed EC directives: "At Alloa we are looking to substantially grow the use of recycled glass packaging in the production of new bottles and jars."
The company said that to do this, the plant needed significant additional processing capabilities, and must also increase the glass packaging waste quality specification.
"In particular it will be necessary to further reduce contaminant residues to ensure that the stringent glass quality and colour standards set by our distilled spirits, drinks and food customers are maintained. To achieve this we have been working with Binder and Co, a European leader in the development of fully automated recycled glass processing plants."
The first phase of the project, which is due to be completed in July next year, will provide for the complete automation of the plant, and includes the installation of new crushing and screening equipment. This will produce a more consistent particle size for both the operation of automated equipment for removing contaminants, and for the efficient melting of processed material in the glass furnace, the company claims. A fully automatic system will also be installed for removing ceramic contaminants such as crockery.