Tender has been launched for a UK HDPE bottle recycling plant

The Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap) has launched a capital support programme for companies to set up a post-use HDPE bottle reprocessing plant in the UK. The financial support follows on from a Wrap-funded project in 2004-2005 in which blow moulder Nampak Plastics used HDPE containing recyclate to make bottles that were then filled and tested by Dairy Crest. A larger scale trial has now started.

Wrap aims for the closed-loop bottle recycling project coming from the new tender to create 13,000 tpa recycling capacity. The UK does not currently have capacity for reprocessing waste HDPE bottles. Paul Davidson, Wrap’s material sector manager for plastics, told PRW.com the programme could result in the establishment of one or more HDPE reprocessing plants.

Wrap can fund up to 30% of the capital set-up costs. Among the criteria applicants must meet are that the plant is installed and fully operational by the end of December 2007. It must also produce recycled HDPE material suitable for food contact applications. Although winning applicants do not need to use the process developed in the earlier project, Davidson pointed out that Wrap is already going through the process of obtaining food contact regulatory approvals.