DS Smith to invest in recycling plants

The U.K.-based packaging firm DS Smith,the U.K.’s largest paper recycling firm, has announced plans to invest £4 million ($5 million) at its recycling facilities in the southwest of England and East London.

The company, which operates 10 recycling facilities in the U.K., is currently going through the planning process at the sites, with the aim of increasing its coverage across the south of England and improving the management of material quality in the U.K.

Following the investment, DS Smith’s East London facility will move to a shared site with the company’s facility in Maidstone, Kent, U.K., while DS Smith’s West London recycling site will remain unaffected. The company says this move will allow it to increase its coverage across England’s southeast while continuing to serve the London area.

“This investment will improve our ability to manage material directly into the mill at Maidstone due to its proximity,” says Matthew Prosser, DS Smith Recycling U.K. managing director.

Meanwhile, the southwest of England facility will move from Keynsham to Avonmouth.

“The Avonmouth site is a perfect logistics hub that will give us scope for improved recycling operations as well as providing better access to serve our customer base throughout Wales and the south, including key commercial areas of Cardiff, Bristol, Swindon and Gloucester,” says Prosser. “Changes to both facilities will increase our ability to reach more customers and process more tonnes.”

The company says the investment will allow it to expand its recycling processing services beyond fibre, of which the company collects and manages more than 2 million tonnes annually in the U.K., most which is supplied directly to its recycled paperboard mill in Kemsley, U.K.

The investment will allow the company to handle a wider range of fibre, along with processing plastics and other materials, including nonrecyclables.

“We have been sending a clear message to local authorities that we have an appetite for their paper and card recycling streams, particularly when it is of the right quality,” Prosser notes.

“The quality of our fibre is key to our operations, and we have two sets of customers to manage: ‘supply’ customers, [from whom] we source our paper and card and ‘mill’ customers, with whom we need to supply recycled fibres for reprocessing. We work with our supply customers to help them produce quality materials for recycling, which also helps them realize operational efficiencies and better material values,” Prosser continues.

“Supplying good quality recycling into our mill customers makes their production operations run more efficiently and reduces rejects through contamination. Controlling the fibre streams is crucial to our closed-loop recycling and packaging offering," he adds. 

The investments are expected to be complete by the first half of this year and the company says the new facilities will be fully operational by spring 2017.