Bright Green Plastics, the Yorkshire-based plastic reprocessing firm which recycles more than 40,000 tonnes of the UK’s plastic waste every year, has invested a significant seven figure sum into upgrading its facility with new groundbreaking washing and extruding machinery, allowing for the recovery of even more post-consumer waste.

The firm’s new wash plant is designed to shred, wash, purify and granulate post-consumer waste into ready-to-recycle flake product. Processing up-to five tonnes per hour, the energy-efficient machine recycles all its own water and will produce the firm’s purest ever PP and PE flake.

The upgraded extruder, which melts the plastic and transforms it into recycled plastic pellets, ready to be put back into the manufacturing cycle, will process up to three tonnes of PP and PE plastic per hour, and allow the firm to work with material previously too difficult to handle, such as flexible plastics.

Both machines are set to be fully operational by the end of the year to facilitate the company’s unprecedented growth over the past 12 months due to large new contract wins, along with the EU’s new packaging levy and the looming UK plastic tax, which will be applied to manufactured or imported plastic packaging that does not contain at least 30% recycled material.

Through ongoing innovation within its onsite research and development division and investment into advanced technology, Bright Green Plastics’ can recycle plastic that matches, if not exceeds, the quality and performance of virgin plastic, allowing the business to contribute considerably to the circular economy whilst enabling its customers to improve their green credentials.

“It’s crunch time for our industry. The EU and UK plastic tax may be welcome, but it’s also common knowledge that the UK’s capability to produce recycled plastic compounds is currently under capacity. With continued investment into new technology and equipment, we’re working towards bridging that gap,” commented Steve Spencer, Managing Director at Bright Green Plastics.

“As the fastest growing UK recycler of PP and PE plastics, we will continue to invest to keep up with the ever-growing demand for high quality recycled compounds, for as long as recycling plastics in the UK remains viable. As such, we are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the EPR consultation as, thus far, our business sees no benefit of the reform at all for the true recyclers of all materials in the UK.”

Since the investment into its own plastic sorting plant last summer, Bright Green Plastics has taken complete control of its raw material in-feed and is currently the only supplier of recycled compounds in the UK that can sort and segregate post-consumer recycling. With the introduction of the new equipment this year, the firm’s reprocessing capacity will increase by two thirds.