Glass recycling plant opens
Alloa, Scotland. The £1.3 million (€2m) project was funded by an
investment of Packaging Recovery Note money to construct the
processing plant and a new visitor centre.
United Glass has officially opened its glass recycling centre in Alloa, Scotland. The £1.3 million (€2m) project was funded by an investment of Packaging Recovery Note money to construct the processing plant and a new visitor centre.
United Glass managing director, Steve Hammond said: "We are proud to be able to open this new facility for recycling in Scotland. We have worked hard with local authorities and other interested parties to develop a colour separated glass collection system in Scotland. However, with total tonnage seemingly stuck at not much more than 50,000 tonnes, there is still much todo. We will be able to use a lot more than this at the Alloa glass packaging plant.
"Reusing glass packaging waste to make new bottles and jars is the most sustainable form of glass recycling. Glass recycled in this way can be used time and again without any deterioration in the quality and integrity of the new containers produced.
"We are aware of the development of other end uses for recycled glass, suchas roadfill and for aggregates. It will be important that the promotion ofthese alternatives does not jeopardise the well-established colour-separatedbottle bank system."
United Glass opened the original Kelliebank facility in 1980.
Steve Hammond commented: "We are certainly backing glass recycling in Scotland,not only with this investment, but through the discussions which our subsidiary, British Glass Recycling Company, has been holding with oursuppliers about scheme expansion.
"In addition, whenever we rebuild and redesign a glass furnace now, we plan for an increased percentage of recycled glass in the raw material batch. So we are counting on the on-going support of our suppliers and the various environmental agencies to enable us to continue to play our part in meeting the requirements of the Scottish Waste Strategy."
The project is comprised of the complete rebuilding and automation of the plant, increasing its potential output of 'furnace-ready' recycled glass to more than 100,000 tonnes a year. In raising the throughput of the recycling plant, the company claims that it was essential to further reduce contaminant residues, such as ceramics, to ensure that the glass quality and colour standardsset by UG's distilled spirits, drinks and food customers are maintained. The fully automated process therefore incorporates new crushing and screening equipment to produce a more consistent particle size and a system which automatically detects and removes ceramic contaminants.
To further promote recycling, United Glass has created a new visitor and education centre in the adjacent Kelliebank House. This will enable UG and BGRC to host organisations interested in boosting recycling rates throughout Scotland and effectively to communicate the benefits of turning packaging waste into new bottles and jars.
Packaging Recovery Note money, which UG generates as an accredited reprocessor of waste under the Packaging Regulations, funded the investment.
