The company has secured a 10 year contract with Project Integra to take in the 66.5 million glass bottles and jars put in bottle banks in Hampshire each year.
The award of the contract, which is on a profit share basis with a guaranteed minimum, is seen as confirming Midland Glass as the leading independent glass recycler.
Used glass containers will also go to the new state-of-the-art plant from other parts of southern England and a contract is expected to be secured soon with Buckinghamshire County Council.
Tim Gent, contracts director for Midland Glass, said he was delighted at the contract. “It has taken us 18 months to finalise the award and we will be investing more than 1 million in the new plant.” Graham Gent, managing director of the company said: “As the UK's number one independent glass reprocessor, we feel we can bring the expertise, to the partnership to make Hampshire first in the field of glass recycling.”
Partnership
Project Integra is a joint initiative between Hampshire councils and Hampshire Waste Services Ltd which is part of Onyx Environmental. Dave Quirk, chair of the Project Integra materials marketing group, speaking after a contracts ceremony this week said: “This marks the result of partnership working at its best. This contract is a great achievement and ensures that every glass bottle put into a bottle bank in Hampshire is reprocessed in the most economically and environmentally efficient manner.”
Glass currently collected in Hampshire' bottle banks is taken to a local storage bay where it is transported for reprocessing as far afield as Yorkshire. From next week it will be taken to the existing Midland Glass processing plant in Nottinghamshire but will be processed in Southampton once the plant is up and running later this summer.
Colour sorting
The new glass processing plant will incorporate MSF colour sorting equipment and material will be cleaned to ensure crockery and other contaminants are removed. Midland Glass will then be in a position to supply the UK glassmaking industry and some cullet will be transported through the rail network as there is a railhead alongside the new plant. However, Tim Gent confirmed that the cullet could also be exported and the use of it for aggregate was an option, although glassmaking would have priority.
The only other glass reprocessing plant that is not situated in the Midlands or further north, is the United Glass plant at Harlow run by Biffa. This plant is currently being considered for some modernisation work.
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