Casepak Opens MRF in UK

Watch time lapse video of the construction of the newest Casepak facility in Leicester.

The U.K.-based company Casepak has opened its newest materials recycling facility (MRF) in Leicester. To help inaugurate the new plant, the U.K.’s Environmental Minister Lord Taylor attended the official opening event as guest of honor, giving a short speech and presenting a plaque to Casepak Chairman and Founder George Smith.

The company invested $32.69 million (£21 million) on the new project. When fully operational, the MRF will be able to sort 150,000 metric tons of dry, mixed recyclables per year. The facility hopes to recover 95 percent of the material processed as a resource. The remainder will be used as a fuel for energy recovery.

According to Casepak, the MRF is the first in the country to incorporate specialist screening for highly compacted materials. The MRF also features a specialist deinking screen that ensures that old newspapers and old magazines recycled through mixed collection programs will be able to meet the quality requirements of U.K. mills.

Mark Smith, Casepak’s joint managing director, says, “This is a major milestone for Casepak, and we are delighted that Lord Taylor has taken time to open the facility. Since the MRF became operational in September we have already secured contracts to manage several local councils’ recyclable material streams and we aim to do more of the same in 2012.”

“Our first shift is already complete and our emphasis will continue to be on securing new contracts and working with our customers and recycling partners to ensure that we can deliver the good quality materials required by the reprocessing industries.”

Casepak, formed in 1973, sorts, processes and trades 145,000 metric tons of source-segregated paper, card and plastics per year through its collection and processing facility in Leicester. Combined, the company’s facilities can currently process 300,000 metric tons for recycled materials a year. Both facilities are centrally located in England.