Milestone agreement with AWS for Nampak

The agreement will enable Nampak to meet its commitment to produce all its UK manufactured HDPE milk bottles with up to 30% recycled content during 2010.

“This is a landmark partnership for us and for the future of HDPE milk bottles,” said James Crick, business development director at Nampak Plastics Europe.

“By providing the necessary rHDPE tonnages for the production of up to 30% recycled content bottles, the contract with AWS will enable Nampak to meet Defra’s Milk Roadmap medium range target for recycled content in milk packaging significantly ahead of time.”

AWS’s Hemswell facility is now the largest plastic bottle sorting plant in the UK following a £14m capital investment programme.

The spending has taken the capacity to 100,000tpa, equivalent to 2bn plastic bottles a year from its previous 25,000 tpa level, or 500m bottles (PRW.com 22 September 2008).

Calling the agreement, “a major breakthrough for AWS,” the company’s chief executive Jonathan Short said: “Until very recently, no one in the UK has been able to produce recycled plastics in any sizeable quantity which was clean enough and odour-free to be turned into food or drink packaging.

“This is something supermarkets and food manufacturers have been seeking for some time as they try to meet their recycling targets and demonstrate their commitment to improve environmental performance.”

AWS is planning further expansion to its Hemswell plant as well as operating further plants through the UK and Europe, it said.

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