Bringing New Life to Fibrous Waste Streams

Based in the Rossendale Valley in Lancashire, Anglo Recycling is a local business whose core business is based around extending the life of an increasing range of industrial plastic waste streams (including clothing and carpet offcuts) which would otherwise be sent to landfill. It employs around 35 people and has developed a range of specialist machinery that takes the original articles and converts them into a number of recycled products that meet the particular needs of a Customer.

Through an active presence in various forums, such as Carpet Recycling UK, Anglo has established an extensive network of SMEs textile manufacturers who send them much of their plastic fibrous waste material to reduce any environmental harm it may otherwise have. For example, one carpet manufacturer can easily produce 200,000 carpet off-cuts (known as cones) each week and Buoyant Upholstery, who manufacture a wide of upholstered furniture, have a zero to landfill pledge.

In essence, there are many waste stream sources available to Anglo such as Senator Furniture (office furniture), Herbert Parkinson (curtains and blinds) and Hollingsworth and Vose (filtration).

One of the key challenges associated with working with, which by its very nature is, a wide variety of relatively low-cost synthetic fibres is the ability to economically transport and convert them into new profitable products. This includes making the equipment sufficiently versatile to produce a variety of products, with different specifications, in order to satisfy a range of end-users.

Anglo plans to design and demonstrate a new flexible manufacturing process on a couple of case study synthetic fibre waste streams that offer huge potential in their own right such as pillows, curtains and upholstery. Hotels in the UK collectively use literally hundreds of thousands of pillows and, thus, converting of, what is normally produced from polyester to another product has considerable environmental benefits.

There is also the opportunity to explore the possibility of closing-the-loop by selling the newly-purposed product, such as carpet underlay.