Balfour Beatty sets up closed loop plastic recycling system

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A new closed loop recycling scheme for plastics has been set up by Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions, plastics recycler Centriforce and V10 Polymers.

The project means that waste plastic will be collected from 100 of Balfour Beatty’s sites throughout the UK to be recycled into cable protection covers for use during the company’s work in replacing and maintaining utility assets.

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Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions buyer Jade Lawton said: “At the outset of the project we established that the way we disposed of plastic waste, such as pipes and construction barriers, was a mixed picture around the country. While some was sold to local recyclers, a significant proportion was collected by waste management companies for incineration or landfill.

“Our research quickly established that there were very few UK companies with the capabilities we required. However, plastic waste reprocessor V10 Polymers was already undertaking plastic waste collections from some of our sites and Centriforce was already a major supplier of cable protection covers for BBUSL.”

The scheme will involve Balfour Beatty staff alerting V10 Polymers to collect the plastic waste from a site within 48 hours. It is then transported to V10 Polymer’s Blackburn site where it is sorted, cleaned and granulated. The resulting HDPE/LDPE feedstock is then delivered to Centriforce’s manufacturing centre in Liverpool. It will then be manufactured into Stokbord heavy duty protection tiles to protect utility pipes and cables.