Beatson Clark partnered with REDWAVE to complete a turnkey plant expansion which began operation last month.
Throughput at the recycling plant is expected to increase by an average of 50 percent over the year, and the project has created 12 full-time jobs which were previously contracted.
As part of the investment Beatson Clark has installed additional optical sorters, vibratory feeder conveyors, new screening machines and a new JCB telehandler.
Additional processing stages have been introduced using new vibrating screens and dedicated optical sorters, improving quality and reducing waste.
The new equipment and the additional inspection stages have reduced the false rejects of glass which were removed with the CSP (Ceramics, Stones and Pottery) by over 50 percent, which in turn has increased the plant efficiency. This makes the process more sustainable and means less waste glass going to aggregate for re-use rather than being truly recycled within our furnaces.
“The addition of new optical sorters makes the process more precise and reduces the amount of good glass which gets rejected by the machines and sent to waste, thereby increasing the amount of quality cullet that can be used in the furnace,” said Patrick Pagdin, Recycling Plant Manager at Beatson Clark.
“We are now seeing an increased output of both white flint glass cullet and gramber (green and amber glass cullet) thanks to easier automated sorting and improvements in the colour sorting process.”
Beatson Clark has also installed a 300m2 canopy to cover infeed material and protect it from inclement weather conditions; this will improve processing during the winter months as the material will remain relatively dry.
Colin Saysell, Logistics and Production Planning Manager at Beatson Clark, added, “Sustainability is an integral part of our philosophy as glass manufacturers. We are constantly looking at new ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint and cut waste.
“Our new, improved capability for resorting recycled glass at source will reduce the transport miles generated through the supply chain and will give us greater control of the quality of our cullet.”
Glass comes into Beatson Clark’s recycling plant from the hospitality sector, which is beginning to recover from the pandemic, and from local authority kerbside collections of domestic glass.
The post-consumer recycled content rates for containers manufactured by Beatson Clark are 30 percent for white flint and 45 percent for amber glass. The recycling plant used to generate on average 50 percent of this cullet; following these investments it now generates over 75 percent of the cullet.