AWS Rebuilding Plastics Sorting Facility

AWS has announced that six months after a fire destroyed the company’s plastic bottle sorting facility in Hemswell, Lincolnshire, U.K., construction on a new facility has commenced. The new building, which includes both a sort line and storage facility, will be 9,000-square meters when complete, roughly twice the size of the original facility.

The building will be split into three distinct fire zones, each with its own fire protection system. The size of the new building will allow for future capacity expansion.

The fire at the plant, Aug. 25, destroyed the facility, and forced the company to lay off several dozen employees.

“At the time the fire was devastating for all staff at AWS, but seeing the frame go up has been a real lift and helps us now focus on the future. Having walked around the new building I am really looking forward to seeing the installation of equipment, which is expected to start in the next couple of months. So far everything is running to schedule, and we expect to be operational this summer,” says Duncan Oakes, AWS’s commercial director.