The Canadian company, Knowaste, is to come to the UK to set up Britain’s first nappy recycling plant specifically designed to recycle nappy and incontinence product waist. They plan to invest around £20 million pounds in the plant over the coming 5 years.
Established in 1989, Knowaste already has plants up and running in other countries including, Germany, Netherlands, Japan and the US.
At the moment it is estimated that 8 million disposable nappies are used in the UK alone every day. Knowaste will aim to be recycling about 30,000 tonnes of that waist a year, which is about 4% of the UK’s nappy waist a year, with an aim to get up to 13% a year.
At the facility, which will apparently be in Tyseley, Birmingham, they will begin with the recycling of nappy and incontinence products from hospitals and nurseries, but will eventually move to deal with the domestic waste too. The products removed form the nappies etc, namely the plastic, wood pulp and the super absorbent gel polymers, will be used to make a variety of products including, shoe insoles, wallpaper, plastic wood and roof tiles.
With European Directives toughening up on its targets to reduce the waist that goes into landfill sites by 2010 and an increasing land fill tax bill, Knowaste’s presence in the UK is a start in the right direction.
www.knowaste.com
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