Viridor and Kier Environmental Services have signed a 12-month contract which will see Cheshire West and Chester councils’ 10,000 tonnes per annum kerbside collected glass sent to Sheffield as part of a closed loop recycling waste management solution.
Viridor Resource Management managing director Keith Trower said the company was committed to ensuring that no circular economy opportunities were missed. This is particularly important with glass with its endless recycling potential.
He explained: “The material received at Viridor’s £12m Sheffield Glass Recycling Facility is excellent quality and a testament to the efforts of the residents of Cheshire West and Chester and Kier’s professional collection strategy.
“The glass will be sent to Sheffield Glass for reprocessing into remelt quality cullet which is supplied to UK remelters, supporting the circular economy message which is so important to Viridor and its partners. Some of the glass will be supplied to Encirc, Elton (only five miles away from one of the collection depots in Ellesmere Port) which is excellent for optimising road freight and reducing our carbon footprint.”
Sheffield Glass has achieved end of waste quality accreditation status for all glass cullet and glass aggregate products and has the capacity to recycle 160,000 tonnes of glass bottles and jars a year – it has been recycling these into glass cullet quality since 2010, investing in new technology as part of a continuing focus on quality improvements.
Craig Cutajar, Head of Materials Trading at Kier Environmental Services, said: “We are delighted to be working with Viridor to ensure that the high-quality recovered glass we produce through the great work carried out by Cheshire West and Chester’s residents and our operational team, is used for remelt purposes.”