Veka Recycling has completed the installation of plant at its new Wellingborough PVC-U recycling facility, representing ‘Phase 2’ of a two-year site development programme.
The new installation, costing £2.5 million, is said to be the ‘crucial’ initial stage of the recycling process that accepts post-consumer frames collected from installers around the country, removes metals and hammers the old frames into manageable fragments before further refinement.
The installation, that includes site preparation, a purpose-built housing, silo, heavy-duty conveyors and the machinery that breaks down the frames, is reported to have been completed on schedule despite the Coronavirus lockdown and in time to receive the first batch of frames as the company reopens.
Due for completion later this year, Veka Recycling says the facility, which will have cost more than £10 million in total, will become the most advanced of its type when it becomes fully operational. The company is already supplying high-grade recycled polymer for remanufacture into window frames, electrical accessories and building components but will be totally self-sufficient when completed.
The result of a continued commitment to the UK by Veka Group, the Wellingborough plant has been built from the ground up after a long search for an appropriate site and in a process that will have taken two years to complete.
Simon Scholes, managing director of Veka Recycling, who has managed the project throughout, says this has been a ‘most exciting period’: “Despite the Coronavirus lockdown we reduced to minimal staff for a month, opening for more regular business from 1 May. Despite this, our engineers have managed to complete the construction work and plant installation on time. When we lifted the first frames on to the conveyor in what is a very noisy and violent process, it was music to our ears,” he said.
Despite the nature of the processes, Veka Recycling says that its plant is ‘highly sophisticated’ and will be linked to the Group’s other sites in Germany – which was the first of its type to be built in Europe in 1994 – France and the Sendenhorst head office, in order to closely monitor and balance operations.
