Innovation in plastic recycling

Over 50 people from the plastic recycling industry, brands, manufacturers and trade bodies joined together in London to learn about new innovations in plastic recycling and debate key current topics for the industry. The day showed that the plastic recycling industry is constantly evolving and looking at how to overcome current barriers.

The seminar started with a scene setting presentation by the chairman of the recycling group, Roger Baynham, who discussed the value of plastics as a material but also the current challenges such as plastics in the ocean and also China’s National Sword.

The next presentation, by Professor Margaret Bates, was from the perspective of the whole waste management industry. She emphasised that householders need to be more responsible for the waste they produce and have the opportunity to demand change through their buying power. Professor Bates also wanted the proximity principle to apply for the circular economy with small circles created by material being recycled and manufactured in the UK.

There was an interesting panel debate on the impact of new import rules in China. The panel commented that previous restrictions in China should have led to change which would have prevented an issue now. There was however, a feeling that there is a new drive within DEFRA and so changes were expected. It was also commented that investors in any new technology would need reassurance from government that if the Chinese market did reopen that material would still stay in the UK where reprocessors existed.

Coca-Cola discussed their new ambition to recover all its packaging so more is recycled and none ends up as litter. To enable this they would make their packaging as sustainable as possible, an example given of this was a trial at Reading University using reusable bottles which students brought and then got free refills for to see if this reduced littering. They are also using their brand to drive change through communications campaign and working with government to champion change to current collection systems.

The delegates also learnt about Total’s project making roads from recycled plastics; Recomed a PVC recycling scheme run in hospitals, new deinking technology from Cadel Deinking and Aage Vestegaard Larsen’s closed loop pipe and bin recycling in Denmark.

The chairman finished by encouraging delegates to sign up to the Plastics Industry Recycling Action Plan (PIRAP) which is working with the whole value chain to increase plastic recycling.

www.pirap.co.uk