New £1.2m glass recycling plant opens in Belfast

Northern Ireland's newest recycling plant, a £1.2 million facility in Belfast, has officially opened today.

Kosmos Glass Recycling, which received more than £200,000 in financial support from Invest NI, boasts a state-of-the-art Krysteline machine - the first of its kind in Northern Ireland.

Kosmos Glass Recycling – a sister company of Ballymena-based Kosmos Recycling Ltd - will receive contaminated waste glass from hotels, pubs and restaurants and reprocess it to produce safe, sterile ground glass (cullet). The new technology will allow waste glass to be collected in bulk without the labour intensive and costly need to segregate the glass by colour. The cullet produced can then be sold for use in the manufacture of value-added materials such as water filtration sand, road paving aggregate,flooring, paint and fibreglass.

In addition, the use of specialised collection vehicles with computerised onboard weighing systems will ensure that accurate documentation - required under the Packaging Regulations - is readily available to companies and relevant government departments.

Robert Mathers, Managing Director of Kosmos Glass Recycling, said: “Considering the potential financial implications for businesses which fail to comply with the latest EU legislation relating to waste management, Kosmos Glass Recycling will provide local firms with a fast and economical method of dealing with waste glass.”

(MMcG/GMCG)