The addition of the Crayford site takes the number of facilities in the Ecotrace network to 14 across the UK.
The site processes more than 450,000 tonnes of mixed recycling each year and serves more than two million households across Greater London and southern England.
It is set for a £5 million expansion as part of a £30.6 million financial deal secured by N+P from NatWest.
Following the upgrade, Crayford MRF will form part of Polytag’s network of detection units, expanding its coverage into one of the UK’s largest population centres.
Alice Rackley, CEO of Polytag commented: “Adding N+P Crayford is a significant milestone because it takes us a step closer to a truly national picture of how plastic packaging moves through the UK recycling system.
“As responsibility for packaging continues to evolve through EPR, better data will be essential. You cannot improve what you cannot measure, and Ecotrace is providing the infrastructure needed to help the industry design better packaging, improve recycling outcomes and ultimately build a more effective circular economy.”
Polytag’s Ecotrace programme uses invisible ultraviolet (UV) tags alongside detection units installed at selected recycling facilities to capture barcode-level data as plastic packaging moves through the recycling system.
The company says the technology can provide up to 100% accurate data on where and when tagged packaging is recovered, with information made available to brands through its platform.
The system is also compatible with optical sorting technology, potentially allowing packaging traceability data to be combined with the identification and separation of materials.
Brands including Waitrose, Ocado and Kraft Heinz are already signed up to have packaging traced through Crayford.
The Kraft Heinz Company became the “first banded food manufacturer” to join the programme in April 2026.
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