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MONMOUTH, England, June 30MONMOUTH, England, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Knowaste, the world's leading developer of recycling technologies for nappies and personal care products, has announced that it will be opening its first processing facility in Slovenia in the summer of 2009 after signing a joint venture agreement with Slovenian waste disposal company Aico Eko d.o.o.
The agreement involves Knowaste building and operating a facility for the recycling of absorbent hygiene products including disposable baby nappies, incontinence materials and disposable bed liners, into sanitized re-usable paper pulp and plastic components.
By partnering with Aico Eko, Knowaste expects to process some 10,000 tonnes of nappy waste per annum.
The joint venture agreement follows Knowaste's announcement last month of its first site in the UK in Birmingham, which is due to go live at the beginning of 2009 and is part of a GBP20m investment programme by the company across the country.
The agreement marks the introduction of Knowaste's recycling technology in Eastern Europe. The facility, which will be based in Ilirska Bistrica, will enable 98% of the disposable nappy to be removed from the waste stream and recreated into a variety of products, including plastic cladding, roof tiles, bicycle helmets and plastic injection and extrusion products.
Nappies are one of the few remaining household items that, until now, could not be recycled and they can take up to 500 years to decompose, creating significant public health and environmental risks.
Barbara Sterlekar, a Director at Aico Eko d.o.o, said: "Recycling is nowadays the best possible way to treat waste. The scale of nappies and incontinence products generated across the world creates a major environmental challenge. We are therefore delighted to be positively contributing to the environment by recycling these absorbent hygiene products in Slovenia through our agreement with Knowaste."
Roy Brown, President and CEO of Knowaste, said: "In response to this challenge our recycling process offers a sustainable, low cost, environmentally friendly waste management solution for nappies and other absorbent hygiene products.
"It diverts untreated human waste from landfills thereby preventing public health risks; diverts some 98% of nappy waste from going to landfill, thereby dramatically reducing associated gases such as methane and carbon dioxide; and at the same time creates new products."
The Knowaste vision is to contribute to the long term health of the planet by introducing cost effective technologies that can recycle disposable absorbent hygiene products. The company began research in this area in 1989 and has been commercially active for the past 10 years. Knowaste has processed and diverted over 200,000 tonnes of nappies in that time.
Knowaste is planning more than 20 recycling facilities for absorbent hygiene products throughout Europe in the next five years.
Notes to Editors
For further information please contact Chris Lawrance or Jennifer Bryant-Pearson on +44-(0)117-9073400, or email chris@jbp.co.uk; jennifer@jbp.co.uk
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