St. Helens, United Kingdom-based Knauf Insulation and Veolia UK have officially opened a glass recycling facility in St. Helens. The plant has been designed to take in more than 5,000 metric tons of used glass bottles and jars per year, converting the material into insulation products to be marketed by Knauf.
The glass recycling facility will sort and separate glass using vibrating screens for size sorting, and magnets and eddy current separators to pull out ferrous and nonferrous metals. Ultimately, the collected glass will be converted into glass cullet.
The facility was built with a £10 million ($13.9 million) investment from the two companies.
Knauf indicates the facility will allow it to secure its glass supply and maintain the high recycled content (up to 80 percent) of the company’s Glass Mineral Wool insulation.
“Our insulation solutions play a key role in helping reduce carbon emissions and benefit the environment,” says John Sinfield, managing director at Knauf Insulation Northern Europe. “We have been using recycled glass in our manufacturing process for some time already. As well as securing our glass supply, the quality and consistency that we are getting now from the new facility will enable us to increase further the percentage of glass cullet we use in the manufacture of our Glass Mineral Wool insulation solutions, taking us one step further in our sustainability journey.”
Comments Estelle Brachlianoff, a senior executive vice president with Veolia UK and Ireland, “This innovative new facility is a £10 million investment in the U.K. green economy, which is good for jobs, good for the community and good for the planet.
“We want to see this first-of-its kind partnership pave the way for others; where waste is seen as an indispensable commodity and given a completely new lease of life,” she continues. “It would be fantastic to see more key industry players follow Knauf Insulation and incorporate circular economy thinking into production.”
Sponsored Content
SENNEBOGEN 340G telehandler improves the view in Macon County, NC
An elevated cab is one of several features improving operational efficiency at the Macon County Solid Waste Management agency in North Carolina. When it comes to waste management, efficiency, safety and reliability are priorities driving decisions from day one, according to staff members of the Macon County Solid Waste Management Department in western North Carolina. The agency operates a recycling plant in a facility originally designed to bale incoming materials. More recently, the building has undergone significant transformations centered around one machine: a SENNEBOGEN telehandler (telescopic handler).
The companies estimate that 95 percent of the glass collected will be converted into cullet that will be sent to the adjacent Knauf Insulation facility. The fine particles left over, about five percent, will be sent to the aggregate industry.
Get curated news on YOUR industry.
Enter your email to receive our newsletters.
Latest from Recycling Today
- Port of LA reports hectic June
- Trade issues have nonferrous scrap heading into US
- Recycle BC portrays its end markets
- MP Materials to collaborate with Apple on rare earth elements recycling
- ABTC awarded $1M by DOE for Argonne Laboratory partnership
- Ocean Conservancy report claims most states lagging in plastic pollution efforts
- LRS diverts 330,000 tons of recyclable material in 2024
- FlexCAR project takes modular approach to automotive design