First UK Closed Loop plastics recycling plant opens

Australian-owned firm Closed Loop Recycling is to unveil a £12 million facility capable of reprocessing 35,000 tonnes of milk and soft drink bottles a year, using state-of-the-art technology.

Although the plant will not be fully operational until later this year, it is now under commissioning and is expected to take food grade plastic in August, and be producing recycled plastic flakes by September.

Chris Dow, managing director of Closed Loop Recycling, said: “This plant represents the evidence that the UK is undergoing a recycling revolution – until now there has been no facility to recycle bottles back into plastic food packaging”.

“The industry and consumer are now viewing recycled plastic in a completely new light, it is no longer waste; it is a valuable resource. In addition, each plastic bottle that we recycle reduces the bottle's carbon footprint by around 25%,” he added.

Equity

The Closed Loop Recycling plant has been funded by £4.7 million in private equity from Sevenoaks-based investment firm Foresight Group. Funding has also come from Closed Loop Environmental Solutions in Australia and grants from WRAP and the London Development Agency.

Dr Liz Goodwin, chief executive of WRAP, heralded the opening as a “step change” in plastics recycling. WRAP expressed particular interest in plastics in its new business plan, unveiled earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story).

She said: ‘WRAP is currently focused on a range of key developments which are delivering a step change in plastics recycling in the UK. The new Closed Loop Recycling London plant represents an exciting and significant move forward in the UK's ability to recycle plastic, which saves natural resources, reduces carbon and delivers real action on climate change.”

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, also welcomed the facility as an important development for the capital.

He said: “Londoners want to be green and recycle more, so it is welcome news that this state-of-the-art recycling plant in Dagenham is now open to recycle tonnes of the capital's plastic waste that was previously destined for landfill. This is good for London and good for the environment.”

Veolia

Closed Loop has developed long-term relationships with waste management firm Veolia Environmental Services – which holds many recycling contracts with local authorities in and around London – to supply plastic waste collected both at the kerbside and in bring banks to the plant.

The PET bottles will be recycled using patented technology developed by South Carolina-based United Resource Recovery Corporation to sort, granulate and super-clean the recycled plastic bottles to produce a high quality raw material that has been tested extensively and is widely used in food applications in both the US and Europe.

Meanwhile, HDPE bottles will be recycled using new technology developed and funded by WRAP in collaboration with M&S, Dairy Crest and Nampak.

Customers

Already, there has been significant interest in the recycled flake that the plant will produce, with Coca-Cola Enterprises, Marks & Spencer, Nampak Plastics Europe and Solo Cup (Europe) all signed up as customers.

Hubert Patricot, managing director of Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd, said: “We have a goal to use on average 25% recycled PET across CCE's European operations by the end of 2010. We are delighted that Closed Loop Recycling's plant in London will help us purchase recycled PET here in the UK.”

Sir Stuart Rose, chief executive, Marks & Spencer, said “We will be able to send some of our Food to Go packaging waste to the plant for recycling and use even more recycled plastic in our M&S packaging. Reducing the amount of waste from our stores and using more sustainable sources for our packaging is also one of the main aims of our new 'eco-plan', Plan A.”

Tony Waters, managing director of disposable food packaging firm Solo Cup (Europe), said: “We recognised immediately the benefits of sourcing high quality food grade recycled PET from a local source and we are pleased to also co-sponsor the office recycling scheme with Marks and Spencer.”

Nampak

Milton-Keynes based packaging manufacturer Nampak, which has an agreement to take 6,000 tonnes of recycled HDPE from the plant a year (see letsrecycle.com story), explained that the facility would help it to make the new HDPE bottles it produces from recycled material.

James Crick, Nampak Plastics business development director, said: “We are committed to supplying all our UK manufactured HDPE milk bottles with up to 10% recycled content during 2008/09 and bottle to bottle recycling (HDPE milk bottles back into HDPE milk bottles) presents the most sustainable and efficient means of recycling.”

The Dagenham recycling plant is just one of many new food-grade plastics recycling facilities planned for the UK, with Nampak (see letsrecycle.com story) and Closed Loop Recycling among the companies planning other projects (see letsrecycle.com story).