A COLNE Valley company is helping other firms tackle waste and reduce their costs.
Future Polymers, headed by brothers Adam and David Mosley and based at Milnsbridge, was born out of a problem faced by a local bath manufacturer.
Said Adam: “All companies produce waste which eventually finds its way into landfill.
“One particular by-product from making an acrylic bath is an acrylic ‘picture frame’ that is contaminated with glass resin polyester. Historically, this was landfill and – based on production figures of 5,500 baths a week – this amounted to about 528 tonnes for the company.
“In landfill tax alone, this was a cost of more than £33,000 which will only increase in future.”
Future Polymers came to the rescue by devising a way to remove glass fibre from the acrylic without the use of chemical washing or the use of harmful solvents. The acrylic can then be re-used to make cast acrylic and turned into other products.
Adam said: “The process is a guarded secret and a patent application has been filed. What we have designed and built turns waste into a saleable commodity by processing and removing the contaminate before separating the materials.
“The result is one-tonne bags of pure granulated acrylic that can be sold to interested parties around the world.
“We are proud that not only have we solved an escalating and ongoing problem for one company, we have the potential to licence the process or reduce other manufacturers’ landfill costs where they have similar materials.”
Adam said: “We know that other bath manufacturers are based along the M62 corridor – all of whom will have the same issues that this company had. The potential is very exciting for us, for them and for the environment.
“The only other solution – other than landfill – is to send the problem abroad. But as companies become more aware of their environmental responsibilities, we think that Future Polymers offers a local, green and sustainable alternative.”
Adam said Future Polymers had started quite small and was now planning to process about seven tonnes of acrylic per week. The company is now processing other polymers, such as high impact polystyrene at about five tonnes a week.
He said: “We are expanding the current unit at Ramsden Mills and we are in the process of brining all our processes under one roof.
“This will enable us to offer better service to our current customers and, hopefully, attract new customers who want a simple, straight-forward solution to their plastic scrap.”
