COMMUNITY RECYCLING IN NEWPORT GETS A BOOST FROM CORUS

24 Apr 2008

Residents of Newport City Council in Wales are benefiting from more efficient steel packaging recycling as a result of help from Corus and Wastesavers Recycling

Wastesavers Recycling is a not-for-profit community recycling organisation that collects and recycles more than 11,000 tonnes of material from Newport householders’ kerbside boxes each year. However, despite its success to date, Wastesavers recently suffered problems with the flattening equipment they used to process the steel cans, which was unreliable, thereby inhibiting capacity to process any anticipated increases in the steel packaging that the company collected.

Corus has now provided Wastesavers with an Excel baler so that capacity to process steel packaging in the local area is significantly increased. As a result, more than 800 tonnes of steel packaging per year will now be processed by Wastesavers Recycling and sent to the Sims Metal CanRoute centre, and then on to Corus to be recycled into a vast range of new steel products.

Paul Jones, Chief Executive of Wastesavers, comments: “Having the necessary equipment to bale the steel packaging collected for recycling is, of course, fundamental to the work we do and the quality of steel that we can send back to Corus.

“Householders are so much more aware of the recycling potential of their packaging materials these days, providing us with more opportunities to collect steel packaging to be recycled. With Corus’ help in supplying a piece of vital baling equipment, we are now able to run a more efficient service and actively seek out more sources of steel packaging material to be recycled.”

Nicola Bennett, Sustainability Projects Manager for Corus Steel Packaging Recycling, comments: “The strong relationships with local collectors throughout the UK are vital to the success of Corus’ steel packaging recycling and this is why we are so keen to help put the necessary equipment and infrastructure in place where it can have a real impact on operations.”