Materials handling solution brings plastic recycling in-house

An award-winning materials handling solution has helped one plastics manufacturer bring the recycling of its scrap plastic in-house, resulting in reduced costs and improved quality control.

Naylor Drainage Ltd, a British manufacturer of construction products, including plastic drainage and ducting, put out a tender earlier this year inviting suppliers to bid to provide an in-house recycling solution for its scrap plastic.

Historically, recycling at Naylor had always been outsourced, however, the company made the decision to bring the process in-house in able to improve its green credentials and eliminate the need for transportation and other costs.

The main challenge was for the new solution to work within Naylor’s existing system at its Barnsley plant, ensuring the flake produced via the required pelletizing line was of the right format to facilitate reuse.

The company that won the tender was Glossop-based ancillary solutions provider, TH Plastics. It had worked with Naylor for nearly five years when it was invited to bid for the recycling project in spring 2014.

TH Plastics was the only short-listed supplier to be able to prove the efficacy of its solution prior to the contract being awarded, by demonstrating a trial of the proposed system, using Naylor’s product, in a facility in Italy. TH Plastics then returned to the UK and successfully ran the flake back into the tailor-made system in order to prove the concept of its pelletizing line.

The solution, which has been in operation since May 2014, incorporated a new regrind pelletizing system, water-cooling and material handling systems, as well as some of Naylor’s existing equipment. Post installation, TH Plastics fine-tuned the solution to ensure that it met Naylor’s changing requirements. All work was undertaken within the stipulated timescale, with no downtime in production.

As well as improving Naylor’s green credentials and removing the transport costs associated with outsourced recycling, TH Plastics’ solution also enabled the company to improve and control the quality of its recycled product via the elimination of any risk of cross-contamination.

“This was a brand new system for us, and we were on a massive learning curve,” explained Kevin Naden, Production Manager at Naylor Drainage. “They [TH Plastics] provided a complete turnkey solution, including solution design, prototype testing, equipment supply, installation, training and on-going maintenance and support.”

TH Plastics’ Managing Director, Lee Thomas, added:  “Our goal is always to work in partnership with customers to create bespoke solutions offering optimum production efficiency, minimal waste and cost and enhanced product quality, integrating seamlessly into existing customer systems. We are delighted to have been able to deliver to Naylor a recycling solution that meets all these criteria.”