Plastics Shredding Equipment For Print Waste Firm

An GBP 85,000 investment in a new plastics shredding machine is reaping rewards for Blandford (UK) print waste collection and recycling firm J and G Environmental.

An GBP 85,000 investment in a new plastics shredding machine is reaping rewards for Blandford (UK) print waste collection and recycling firm J and G Environmental.

The machine has enabled the company to increase its HDPE (high density polyethylene) recycling to six tonnes a week, equivalent to 6,000 containers, all collected from printing companies throughout the UK.

For the first time J and G can also recycle 'dirty' containers contaminated with varnish residue that previously went to designated landfill sites.

The machine also shreds unwanted wooden pallets, a service that is already proving popular with the company's customers, it said.

J and G joint managing director, Steve Armstrong, said: "As we can now recycle virtually every container we collect the environment benefits from both a reduction in the UK's use of virgin HDPE plastics and the number of contaminated containers going to landfill.

The new shredder has already proved so successful we are considering installing a second machine." Working at full capacity, the top of the range Weima machine is said to be capable of shredding 12,000 containers and 1,000 wooden pallets a week.

The plastic granules produced are sent for reprocessing in to a wide range of products but mainly drainage pipes.

The wood chippings are used in the manufacture of chipboard.

In addition to plastic containers and wooden pallets, J and G disposes of three million litres of printers' toxic liquid waste weekly and collects 6,000 tonnes of aluminium litho plates, as well as tens of thousands of used fluorescent lamp tubes every year.

The company currently recycles or re-uses nearly three-quarters of the waste it collects and is aiming to achieve 85 per cent in the near future, it added.

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