Veolia Opens New Glass Recycling Facility in St. Helens

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The joint-venture project between Knauf Insulation and Veolia has announced official opening of the newly constructed high-tech glass recycling facility in St Helens, Merseyside, UK. The new facility, constructed and operated by Veolia, has capacity to process over 600,000 tonnes of used glass bottles and jars.

The facility is located next to Knauf’s St Helens manufacturing plant. The glass collected by Veolia will be fed to the glass recycling plant, where it will be cleaned, separated and processed. The recycled glass products from the plant will be used by Knauf insulation as a raw material to manufacture high-quality insulation products. The recycling plant will boost Knauf’s use of recycled materials instead of virgin materials. The proximity of the plant to its existing facility will also result in significant savings of transportation costs for the company, noted John Sinfield, Managing Director at Knauf Insulation Northern Europe.

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Meantime, Estelle Brachlianoff, Senior Executive Vice-President at Veolia UK & Ireland noted that the new facility offers a completely closed loop solution for glass packaging. The use of ultra-modern technologies and equipment to sort and separate glass ensures that the plant produces high-purity ‘furnace-ready’ glass cullets. The entire process generates less carbon dioxide emissions, he added.

The investment has already created around 20 new local jobs. As per company sources, more jobs will be created in near future. The construction phase of the project had contributed significantly to St Helen’s economy through engagement of local firms. This facility, which transforms glass bottles to energy-saving insulation products, is the first of its kind in the UK, sources said. The joint venture contract deal was signed between both the parties in early March 2017.