Re-Gen Waste seal glass recycling deal with High 5
New £10 million contract ensures 95% of glass collected by Re-Gen is processed ‘back to bottle’
RE-GEN Waste Ltd have signed a long-term contract under which the Northern Ireland-based company sends all its collected glass to Belgian High 5 Recycling Group. The £10 million deal guarantees an end market for Re-Gen’s commingled waste streams in the UK and Northern Ireland.
Joseph Doherty, managing director of Re-Gen, commented: ‘Dealing with glass that is mixed together with other dry recyclable waste is one of the biggest issues facing materials-sorting facilities today. The majority are incapable of recycling glass due to breakage which, ultimately, means glass ends up in landfill. Separating recoverable glass from contaminants and washing it produces a visually cleaner glass product and yields an added-value product for resale.’
Re-Gen have recently invested in a new state-of-the-art screening plant at their headquarters in Newry to improve the screening and cleaning of recycled glass. The facility will help the business recover 95% of the glass it collects for recycling.
Mr Doherty said: ‘High 5 Recycling operate the most technically advanced glass plant in Europe, with the requisite technology to successfully sort unprocessed and contaminated glass. Our decision to work together was an obvious one.’
Alexandre Halbrecq, director of High 5 Recycling, added: ‘We have been extremely impressed with the quality of glass that Re-Gen has supplied to us – no doubt attributable to the significant investment in their on-site, high-tech glass screening plant.
‘High 5 Recycling has developed a technology to allow the separation of this glass by colour. One of the end products is an added value glass coloured midway between amber and green called ‘dead leaf. The glass possesses interesting chemical properties of use to industrialists.’
Re-Gen and High 5 say they are both looking forward to working together and developing a successful partnership that can yield recoverable glass to prevent it reaching landfill, which is deemed ‘wasteful and socially irresponsible’.
