Glass recycling company Recresco increases waste management capabilities by installing state of the art metal sorting technology
Leading UK glass recycling company Recresco, has made a significant investment into state-of-the-art metal sorting technology at its Ellesmere Port site. The project will see shredders, Xray fluorescence technology and briquetting machinery installed and operational by the end of September to efficiently sort, shred and compress the aluminium bottle tops from co-mingled glass collections for smelting.
Glass collections often see aluminium caps still attached to containers with rubber, cork or plastic seals still in place. Caps are traditionally removed at the glass reprocessor and sent to a scrap yard where they often become waste product due to being a very lightweight component of the batch. Recresco sees around 20 tonnes of metal lids move through its Ellesmere Port plant every week.
Once caps are removed from glass bottles, the innovative Redwave machinery removes other metals and the ‘ATM’ press places caps under 500 tonnes of pressure forming furnace ready briquettes suitable for smelting. The innovative process of sorting, shredding and pressing the caps into metal briquettes leads more aluminium into a furnace ready product, maximising recovery of aluminium for more sustainable and efficient end use.
The investment worth around £5.5M sees a £3.5M commitment from Recresco with the remainder being supported by EU grant funding awarded in 2019 under the EU European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator programme which supports individual Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), to develop and scaleup game-changing innovations.
Recresco purchased the site it occupies at Ellesmere Port in 2020 in a multimillion-pound deal. Since then, the company has made significant improvements installing a state-of-the-art Research & Development Centre, investing in ground-breaking sorting technology, IT upgrade program, companywide safety systems and general site improvements.
Recresco Director Tim Gent, said, “At Recresco we feel strongly about reducing waste and achieving the most positive environmental outcomes for glass. By taking the same approach to the by-products of glass recycling, we can efficiently drive more waste product into sustainable end use.
“We have a passion for innovation, always looking to new technologies and systems that make all of our activities more energy efficient and environmentally sound. This investment is part of our overall journey to minimising our environmental impact while maximising yield and we look forward to seeing the positive results from this project.” concluded Gent.