Aylesford Newsprint has been named as the preferred bidder for the additional UK newsprint reprocessing capacity by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) (PrintWeek, 27 July).

Up to 150 new jobs could be created at Aylesford's Kent site and 3,000-4,000 in the economy overall.

The contract will mean the installation of a new paper machine at Aylesford, which will aim to reprocess more than 400,000 tonnes of wastepaper when running at full capacity. WRAP will provide an as yet unspecified amount of capital for the project.

"This is important for newspaper publishers, the industry and the UK as a whole," said Aylesford Newsprint company secretary Donald Charlesworth.

He said that the newspaper industry had been the subject of a cascade of voluntary recycled content targets in the past, which were dependent on new newsprint reprocessing capacity coming on-stream.

"That is why it is vital that the new capacity is in the UK," he said.

The new machine is scheduled to come on-stream toward the end of 2003.

GPMU general secretary Tony Dubbins said the news was a "great boost" to the paper industry and UK manufacturing in general.

WRAP aims to reduce the amount of paper going to landfill sites and increase newsprint reprocessing capacity by 300,000 tonnes a year from the municipal waste stream.

"This will mean not only a 30% increase in newsprint reprocessing, but you will see a knock-on effect on recycling collections, which is what we have all been after," said WRAP chief executive Jennie Price.

Aylesford won the contract over competition from Bridgewater Paper Company, Shotton Paper and Stora Enso.

Story by Andy Scott