UK’s only beverage carton reprocessing plant signs up first customer
Bryson Recycling will be the first firm to send its bales of used materials to the UK’s first beverage carton reprocessing plant.
The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) UK and Sonoco Alcore have confirmed that the Northern Ireland-based recycling firm will send its bales of used beverage cartons to the 25,000tpa plant in Stainland, West Yorkshire.
Beverage cartons are collected by Bryson Recycling from kerbside schemes in Newtownabbey, Ballymena and Carrickfergus, covering more than 68,000 households.
At the company’s materials recycling facility (MRF) in Belfast, the cartons are separated from other recyclables and baled, before currently being shipped to Sweden for reprocessing via ACE UK.
Beverage cartons
According to ACE UK and Sonoco, when the new plant becomes operational in early 2013, there will be potential to create a creative logistics scenario: lorries used to transport coreboard from the Sonoco Alcore mill in West Yorkshire to its converting factory in Lurgan, County Armagh, could be backloaded with used beverage carton bales from the Bryson Recycling MRF for reprocessing back at the Stainland plant, significantly reducing transport impacts.
Eric Randall, director at Bryson Recycling, said: “The ability to reprocess beverage cartons in the UK is great news for us and our local authority partners.
“At the heart of everything we do is the triple bottom line approach: social responsibility; environmental sustainability; and economic viability. Our agreement with ACE UK and Sonoco Alcore puts a big tick in all these boxes, so we’re delighted to be leading the pack as the first to sign-up.”
Kerbside collections
As a result of the reprocessing plant initiative, ACE UK expects kerbside coverage and carton recycling rates to significantly increase. “While collection coverage for beverage cartons is already high, we know from our discussions with local authorities that a UK-based reprocessing solution makes the switch to kerbside collection more appealing”, said Fay Dashper, recycling operations manager at ACE UK.
“Nevertheless, even we are surprised at the level of interest received from MRF operators in the plant and the UK-based market it creates for used beverage cartons.”
