ECO Plastics agrees landmark recycling deal with Gwynedd Council

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Gwynedd Council and ECO Plastics have announced a long-term partnership that will see the company receive all the mixed plastics from the local authority.

The decision follows a significant investment by Gwynedd in a new materials recycling facility at Caernarfon allowing the council to carry out an initial sort of materials collected at kerbside from its 120,000 residents.

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ECO Plastics will then purchase the material before running it through its own plant to produce 11 different streams of recyclable plastics.

It is also the first contract to include ECO Plastics’ Supplier Quality Audit (SQA) that enables suppliers to tap into ECO Plastics’ expertise to refine their own processes to produce the most efficient waste streams.

ECO Plastics deputy chairman Jonathan Short said: “Gwynedd initially contacted us because of concerns around the final destination of their waste materials.

“After two members of our SQA visited Caernarfon to review their process, they decided to move away from segregating different polymers and instead provide a mixed plastics bale direct. By eliminating several superfluous sorts, it has ensured that more quality material will be extracted from the process and less material is sent for disposal saving residents money in the process.”

Gwynedd Council senior waste and commissioning manager Steffan Jones added: “By processing the material ourselves rather than through a waste management company, this deal creates a new revenue stream from what was previously a cost – not just financially, but also environmentally.

“The income from our contract with ECO Plastics, savings in waste management company fees and landfill tax, increase in recycling rates and ability to comply with the End Destinations Charter, presents a genuine win-win-win-win scenario for the residents of Gwynedd.

“With the help of ECO Plastics, we are now well on the way to reaching our statutory recycling target of 58 per cent by March 2016.”