Netherlands plastics recycler Van Werven is expanding its activity in Europe opening a new plant to handle post consumer rigid plastic waste at Lanaken across the border in Belgium.
The facility, launched this month, is focused on sorting used plastics which, once separated, will be shipped north to the company's processing plant at Biddinghuizen near Harderwijk in the Netherlands.
Van Werven, based in Oldebroek, is supplying the recycled material to customers in Europe for reuse in a range of high-end products.
The recycler, which launched its first Belgian plant in Antwerp two years ago, will employ a 10-strong workforce at the Lanaken plant. Van Werven selected the location because of its easy access from the east of both Flanders and Wallonia regions and the southern part of Limburg province in Belgium and from part of Germany.
Van Werven, a family-run enterprise founded in 1945, specialises in processing polyethylene, polypropylene and PVC waste gathered from recycling centres, waste collectors and factory production scrap.
Overall, the firm recycles 600,000 cubic metres of mixed plastics waste a year. It already has a number of other waste sorting and processing plants outside the Netherlands including units at Essen, Germany; in Selby, UK and at several sites in Denmark.